€f)c  €ppc£  of  <£ng;Ii.sf)  literature 

EDITED    BY 
WILLIAM    ALLAN    NEILSON 


SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

BY 

GORDON  HALL  GEROULD 


SAINTS'  LEGENDS 


BY 


GORDON   HALL   GEROULD 

PBOnSSOB  OF  BNOUSB  IN  I'KINCETON 
DK1VEKS1TY        - 


BOSTON    AND    NEW    YORK 

BOUGHTON  MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

(«Cbc  llitacreibc  prres  <CambriDcc 
LOlfl 


I 


COPYRIGHT,    1916,   BY   GORDON   HALL  GEROULD 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 

Published  September  iQib 


TO 

K.  F.  G. 


Deface 

N  the  pages  that  follow  I  have  tried  to 
write  the  history  of  saints'  legends  as  one 
part  of  the  survey  of  English  literature  to 
be  presented  by  the  series  of  which  this  vol- 
ume is  a  member.  My  difficulties  have  been  many.  Al- 
though the  lives  of  saints  began  to  affect  the  vernacular 
literatures  of  Europe  as  soon  as  such  literatures  came  into 
being,  and  although  legends  in  the  vulgar  tongues  were 
everywhere  exceedingly  popular  until  modern  times,  they 
have  been  little  studied,  at  least  in  their  relations  to  one 
another  and  to  their  historical  backgrounds.  I  have  had, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  model  for  this  book,  since  no  such 
study  has  hitherto  been  made  for  any  of  the  European 
literatures.  I  have  had  at  once  the  pleasures  and  the 
pains  of  mapping  out  a  new  region.  I  can  only  hope  that  I 
have  escaped  some  of  the  errors  to  which  the  pioneer  in 
cartography  is  liable. 

Furthermore,  it  has  required  a  good  deal  of  patience  to 
disentangle  what  I  can  only  describe  as  the  snarl  of 
legends  from  the  later  Middle  Ages.  Here,  again,  other 
scholars  have  given  me  little  help,  though  I  must  grate- 
fully acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  Dr.  Ilorstmann, 
who  by  his  indomitable  zeal  in  editing  texts  has  done  more 
than  any  other  one  man  to  make  my  study  possible.  His 
work  has  never  been  recognized  at  its  true  worth,  nor  has 


viii  PREFACE 

he  ever  received  his  due  meed  of  praise.  Considering  the 
mass  of  his  publications,  one  can  excuse  their  faults  of 
haste  and  disorder.  At  the  same  time,  in  reviewing  his 
work,  as  well  as  in  dealing  with  much  else  that  has  been 
published  with  regard  to  individual  legends  or  groups  of 
legends,  I  have  found  caution  very  necessary.  The  study 
of  special  problems  has  constantly  retarded  the  progress  of 
the  book.  That  many  of  them  I  have  had  to  leave  un- 
solved goes  without  saying,  though  I  have  been  working 
towards  this  volume  for  more  than  ten  years.  Yet  I  beg 
my  readers  to  believe  that  I  have  not  expressed  opinions 
unfortified  by  study.  If  in  respect  to  certain  legends  that 
have  been  much  discussed,  like  the  Cynewulfian  poems, 
my  views  are  novel,  it  is  perhaps  because  my  approach 
has  been  consistently  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  type 
itself. 

What  I  have  said  is  partly  by  way  of  extenuation :  it  is 
meant  neither  as  defiance  nor  complaint.  My  one  desire 
is  that  others  may  come,  through  reading  this  book,  to  see 
the  nobility  of  the  impress  that  saints'  legends  have  made 
on  our  literature,  as  I  have  come  to  see  it.  The  story  is, 
for  the  most  part,  of  a  day  long  past,  but  its  significance 
remains.  I  have  tried  to  show  that  legends  are  dry  and 
dusty  merely  because  the  dust  has  been  allowed  to  settle 
upon  them.  The  dryness,  I  fancy,  is  merely  a  matter  of 
ourselves,  in  any  case. 

As  many  acknowledgments  as  possible  to  studies  that 
have  aided  me  I  have  made  in  the  text.  To  other  scholars 
whose  work  I  have  used,  but  have  not  specifically  men- 


PREFACE  is 

tioned,  I  wish  to  express  my  thanks  in  equal  measure.  I 
must,  moreover,  take  occasion  to  pay  my  tribute  to  Pro- 
fessor Napier,  of  Oxford,  who  has  died  while  the  sheets 
of  this  book  have  been  going  through  the  press.  To  him  I 
owe  my  first  impulse  to  the  study  of  saints'  legends,  and 
to  him  I  had  hoped  to  submit  this  volume  in  all  humility. 
The  field  was  his  more  than  any  other  man's,  just  as  a 
searching  knowledge  of  the  earlier  periods  of  our  literature 
in  general  was  more  completely  his  than  any  other 
scholar's.  To  Professor  Neilson,  of  Harvard,  I  wish  to  give 
my  thanks  for  suggesting  this  book  in  the  first  instance, 
for  not  pressing  me  to  finish  the  task  in  haste,  and  for  read- 
ing the  proof.  To  several  of  my  colleagues  at  Princeton 
I  am  indebted  for  criticism  by  the  way,  but  particularly 
to  Professor  Root,  who  read  the  completed  manuscript. 
Lastly,  my  gratitude  is  due  to  my  wife,  who  has  taken 
pains  both  with  manuscript  and  proof,  to  the  betterment 
of  both. 

G.  H.  G. 

Princeton,  July,  1916. 


\ 


CONTENTS 

I.  Definition  and  Use 1 

II.  Origins  and  Propagation 17 

III.  The  Epic  Legend  in  Old  English 55 

IV.  Prose  Legends  defore  the  Conquest       ...  94 

V.  New  Influences:  France  and  the  Cult  of  the 

Virgin        128 

VI.  The  Conquest  to  the  Reformation.     I 

LEGENDARIES  AND   SAINTS'    LIVES   IN   WORKS   OF 
HISTORY   AND    EDIFICATION 151 

VII.  The  Conquest  to  the  Reformation.     II 

THE  COURSE  OF  THE  LEGEND 204 

MIL  Saints'  Lives  in  Drama 294 

IX.  The  Reformation  and  Since 313 

Bibliography 349 

Index        377 


SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

CHAPTER    I 
DEFINITION  AND  USE 

O  write  the  history  of  saints'  lives  as  they 
have  appeared  in  English  literature  requires, 
first  of  all,  a  working  definition.  It  is  easy 
enough  to  say  that  legends  of  the  saints 
occupy  a  place  apart  from  other  literature  by  reason 
of  their  subject-matter.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
casual  observer,  they  are  merely  a  specialized  form  of 
biography,  written  sometimes  in  verse  and  sometimes  in 
prose;  varying  in  their  content  from  the  most  severely 
critical  history  to  the  most  wildly  fantastic  fiction;  and 
intended  cither  to  instruct  the  reader  in  the  veritable 
deeds  of  great  leaders  of  men  or  to  edify  him  by  exam- 
ples of  the  beauty  and  power  of  holy  living.  Yet  as  a 
specialized  form  of  biography  merely,  this  various  mass 
of  literary  works  does  not  constitute  a  type  that  could 
justifiably  be  treated  in  the  present  series.  Conglomerate 
as  it  is,  there  must  be  discoverable  some  bond  of  union 
between  the  diverse  content  and  form  of  its  members 
that  will  permit  US  to  trace  its  course  from  /Elfric  to 
Chaucer,  from  Chaucer  to  AJban  Butler.  Otherwise,  ii 
cannol  he  regarded  ■■  a  a  genre  at  all,  and   the  lives  of 


2  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

saints  must  be  relegated  to  one  or  another  field  of  nar- 
rative, where,  on  the  basis  of  external  treatment,  they 
may  chance  to  find  a  proper  resting-place. 

There  need  be  no  argument  to  prove  that  a  definition 
by  subject-matter  or  by  form  would  be  inadequate.  Both 
of  these  elements  vary  and  shift  from  author  to  author, 
as  from  age  to  age.  With  regard  to  the  former,  one  might 
as  well  try  to  discuss  under  a  single  heading  all  accounts 
of  battles  in  English  literature,  from  the  Old  English 
Finnesburh  to  Thackeray's  description  of  Waterloo,  as  to 
attempt  to  unite  on  the  basis  of  material  the  fifteenth- 
century  Christina  Mirabilis  with  Professor  Bury's  Life  of 
St.  Patrick.  With  respect  to  form,  moreover,  what  pos- 
sible link  can  there  be  between  the  rhapsodical  march 
of  Cynewulf 's  Elene  and  the  haltingly  pedestrian  prose  of 
the  Blickling  Homilies,  though  they  were  written  in  the 
same  general  period?  By  these  paths,  it  is  evident,  we 
shall  come  to  no  workable  definition  of  legends  as  a  type. 

Nor  is  it  permissible  so  to  limit  the  field  of  inquiry  as  to 
include  merely  works  of  a  certain  class  or  time,  and  thus 
to  simplify  the  problem.  It  would  be  easy  to  say,  for 
example,  that  only  such  lives  as  were  in  some  degree 
touched  by  the  spirit  of  wonder  or  romance  should  be 
considered,  or  that  poetical  legends  only  should  be  in- 
cluded; but  the  standard  would  be  foolish,  arbitrary,  and 
of  no  profit.  Saints'  lives  of  whatever  content  and  form 
demand  equal  consideration,  since  they  must  all  be  repre- 
sentatives of  the  type,  if  such  a  type  exists.  Works  of 
edification  as  well  as  works  with  the  real  or  ostensible  aim 


DEFINITION   AND   USE  3 

of  teaching  history  have  a  claim  to  the  name  of  legend,  in 
this  sense.  Imagination  and  sober  narration  hold  the  field 
together.  In  the  words  of  one  of  the  most  learned  and 
dear-sighted  of  the  modern  Bollandists,  M.  Delehaye: 
"A  new  genre  develops,  which  is  concerned  with  biog- 
raphy, with  panegyric,  and  with  moral  instruction." 

A  definition  "by  origins  is  not  less  impossible  than  a  defi- 
nition by  subject-matter  or  by  form.  As  the  reader  will 
discover  from  the  chapter  following  this,  if  he  does  not 
already  know,  the  sources  of  legends  are  as  various  as  the 
forms  they  have  taken,  and  the  manners  of  their  genesis 
differ  almost  as  widely  as  the  materials  out  of  which  they 
haw  grown.  Though  convention,  in  the  shape  of  for- 
mula-, has  always  been  beloved  of  legend-makers  and 
legend-writers,  ii  has  operated  with  such  free  scope  that  it 
offers  no  clue  to  the  identification  of  the  type.  East  and 
west,  under  conditions  and  influences  of  the  most  widely 
varying  sort,  uncontrolled  save  by  a  prevailingly  genuine 
desire  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  Church,  the  acts,  pas- 
sions, and  miracles  of  the  saints  have  come  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  men  and  have  been  recorded.  They  have  been  a 
solace,  an  inspiration,  and  a  moral  force  in  the  history  of 
the  world;  but  they  cannot  be  described  or  limited  by  the 
t<Tin>  of  their  origin.  Place,  time,  and  environment  are 

important     factors    in    their    development,   but    not    the 

factors  that  determine  the  essential  qualities  of  their 
being. 

Willi  all  these  customary  and  normal  criteria  for  de- 
termining the  nature  of  a  literary  type  discarded       the 


4  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

standards  of  substance,  of  form,  and  of  origin  —  the 
reader  may  with  good  reason  inquire  whether  saints'  Hives 
can  properly  be  said  to  constitute  a  genre  at  all.  I  should 
answer  the  query  by  saying  that  they  can  be,  and  are  to 
be,  so  considered,  though  the  difficulties  of  differentiation 
from  other  types  need  not  be  concealed.  In  point  of  fact, 
the  definition  of  them  as  a  type  must  be  psychological 
rather  than  formal.  It  depends  upon  the  causes  of  their 
development  and  the  influence  of  their  propagation  on 
the  human  mind  rather  than  upon  the  elements  of  their 
constitution.  More  than  almost  any  other  form  of  liter- 
ature, the  legends  of  saints  are  associated  with  a  particu- 
lar attitude  on  the  part  of  their  makers  towards  the  visible 
and  invisible  phenomena  of  existence.  They  are,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  ecclesiastical,  but  not  narrowly  so; 
they  are  moral  of  tendency,  but  not  didactic;  they  incul- 
cate piety,  but  do  not  of  necessity  teach  doctrine.  They 
take  for  granted  the  infinity  of  God's  power  and,  almost 
equally,  the  dignity  of  man.  They  demand  reverence  of 
maker  and  hearer  alike,  but  they  do  not  require  supersti- 
tious credulity.  Though  many  of  them  are  stained  by 
ignorant  and  unworthy  associations,  as  a  type  they  are 
inspirers  of  purity  and  militant  guardians  of  the  integrity 
of  the  human  soul.  Individualistic  as  is  their  tendency  (a 
trait  they  hold  in  common  with  all  biography),  they  yet 
represent  the  solidarity  of  man's  endeavor  towards  the 
power  outside  himself  that  makes  for  righteousness. 
Thus  the  view  of  history  exemplified  by  them  is  that  the 
forward  movement  of  the  world  has  been  hastened  by 


DEFINITION   AND  USE  5 

groat  leaders,  but  by  leaders  working  with  and  for  their 
followers,  and  always  under  the  guidance  of  the  divine 
hand.  Widely  as  the  ideals  of  human  conduct  differ,  as 
set  forth  in  the  stories  of  the  Egyptian  anchorites  and  of 
men  like  Gregory  the  Great  or  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
the  legends  show  a  common  aspiration  towards  an  un- 
worldly goal.  Whether  in  fantastic  apologue  and  parable 
or  in  sober  narration  of  well -authenticated  history,  the 
lives  of  the  saints  represent  the  search  not  only  for  good- 
ness but  for  truth. 

This  constant  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of  those 
responsible  for  the  composition  of  saints'  legends  makes 
it  possible  to  formulate  a  working  definition  of  these 
legends  as  a  literary  type,  though  not  as  a  formal  type. 
An  absolute  definition,  difficult  to  make  in  the  case  of 
almost  every  genre,  seems  out  of  the  question  here,  where 
the  product  is  so  various  and  the  development  so  influ- 
enced by  changing  factors.  The  saint's  legend  is  a  bio- 
graphical narrative,  of  whatever  origin  circumstances  may 
dictate,  written  in  whatever  medium  may  be  convenient,  con- 
cerned as  to  substance  with  the  life,  death,  and  miracles  of 
some  person  accounted  worthy  to  be  considered  a  leader  in 
the  cause  Cjf  righteousness;  and,  whether  fictitious  or  his- 
torically true,  calculated  to  glorify  the  memory  of  its  subject. 

In  considering  ecclesiastical  legends  as  a  literary  type, 
one  is  not  primarily  concerned,  of  course,  with  their  his- 
torical accuracy.  One  views  the  product  as  ii  stands,  the 
result  of  complex  forces  operating  through  I<>n<j  periods  of 

lime,  and  takes  it  for  what  it  is  worth.  Without  altogether 


6  SAINTS*  LEGENDS 

neglecting  questions  of  history,  we  are  here  concerned  for 
the  most  part  with  questions  of  literature.  For  our  pur- 
pose, the  legends  of  St.  George  and  St.  Christopher  in 
their  later  stages  are  of  as  much  interest  as  the  authentic 
acts  of  St.  Perpetua  and  Bede's  account  of  St.  Cuthbert. 
We  may  find  profit  in  the  inquiry  whether  such  persons  as 
St.  George  and  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria  actually  ex- 
isted; but  since  their  lives  have  been  written  and  rewrit- 
ten, expanded  and  elaborated,  our  chief  business  is  with 
the  tissue  of  imaginings  that  constitutes  their  legends. 
The  lives  thus  composed  have  at  any  rate  real  existence, 
whether  or  not  the  characters  behind  them  lived  in  the 
actual  world  or  only  in  the  cumulative  fancy  of  passing 
generations  of  believers.  The  legends  themselves  are  our 
proper  material  for  study. 

In  point  of  fact,  with  reference  to  the  older  saints  at 
least,  it  almost  seems  as  if  the  influence  and  popularity 
of  saints  were  in  inverse  ratio  to  their  authenticity.  Cer- 
tainly the  most  veracious  accounts  of  the  early  martyrs 
now  extant  concern  those  saints  who  have  not  enjoyed 
the  widest  and  most  enduring  celebrity.  Without  pushing 
the  statement  to  the  limits  of  absurdity  (for  abundant 
redactions  of  a  life,  even  though  much  embroidered,  some- 
times make  possible  an  arrival  at  historical  truth),  it  is 
incontestable,  as  M.  Delehaye  admits,  that  "historical 
tradition  has  been  more  difficult  to  guard  in  the  most 
frequented  sanctuaries  than  anywhere  else."  As  in  the 
case  of  secular  heroes,  unveracious  stories  were  more 
likely  to  grow  up  about  those  heroes  of  the  Church  whose 


DEFINITION  AND  USE  7 

personalities  and  supposed  powers  attracted  the  widest 
notice  and  the  deepest  veneration. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  lives  as  they  were 
written,  and  not  as  the  modern  historian  would  have 
had  them  written,  are  the  proper  and  only  possible  ma- 
terial for  a  study  of  the  legendary  type,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  form  of  biography.  It 
will  not  do  to  treat  legends,  even  when  studying  the  part 
they  have  played  in  literature,  simply  as  so  much  fiction. 
They  are  too  real,  and  their  connection  with  the  histori- 
cal events  of  the  past  is  too  intimate,  to  permit  us  thus  to 
discard  all  thought  of  the  actual.  Even  when  they  are 
most  nearly  allied  to  romance,  they  differ  from  tales  pure 
and  simple  by  their  attachment  to  history  and  topogra- 
phy. Some  saints  owe  their  existence  to  archaeological 
misunderstandings,  and  some  to  reminiscences  of  pagan 
myth,  as  we  shall  see;  but  no  saint  in  the  calendar  lacks 
a  local  habitation  and  an  historical  background. 

In  writing  a  history  of  saints'  lives  as  they  have  ap- 
peared in  English  literature,  the  international  aspects  of 
the  type  cannot  well  be  ignored.  In  spite  of  the  local  at- 
tachments of  the  particular  legends,  the  type  can  never 
be  altogether  holated  as  a  racial  or  regional  growth. 
Must  literary  genres,  however  widely  cultivated,  have 
had  an  individual,  if  not  altogether  independent,  develop- 
ment in  various  national  literatures.  Not  so  with  the 
legend.  At  leasl  a  due  proportion  <>f  Englishmen  have 
l>< sen  canonized,  and  many  of  them  have  been  very  widely 

revered  outside  of  England;  but  their  lives  cannot  be  said 


8  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

to  possess  extraordinary  qualities  that  distinguish  them 
from  the  lives  of  saints  who  were  born  in  other  lands. 
Moreover,  the  primary  accounts  of  even  the  most  charac- 
teristically national  figures  were  written  not  in  the  ver- 
nacular but  in  Latin.  The  career  of  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury had  without  doubt  a  most  important  influence  on 
the  history  of  England;  yet  his  followers,  like  Edward 
Grim  and  John  of  Salisbury,  wrote  their  narratives  of  his 
martyrdom  in  the  language  of  the  Church  universal.  His 
memory  thus  became  a  heritage  of  the  world  at  large,  and 
his  legend,  in  this  sense,  no  more  a  part  of  English  litera- 
ture than  of  the  literatures  of  France  or  Iceland. 

Thus  with  all  saints,  early  or  late,  there  is  no  clear  line 
of  demarcation  in  the  matter  of  language.  Though  hosts 
of  them,  unlike  Thomas,  were  celebrated  only  locally, 
their  lives  were  in  the  first  place  usually  set  down  in  Latin 
rather  than  in  the  vernacular  of  the  place  where  they 
dwelt.  Latin,  and  to  a  less  extent  Greek,  became  the  pre- 
vailing medium  of  legends,  while  other  languages  adopted 
and  adapted  such  lives  as  seemed  likely,  for  reasons  of 
popular  veneration  or  instructional  value,  to  appeal  to 
the  unlearned. 

Can  it  be  possible,  then,  to  trace  the  history  of  the  leg- 
end in  English  or  any  other  vernacular  literature?  Has  it 
had  a  growth  sufficiently  independent  to  make  worth 
while  the  effort  to  show  its  stages  of  development?  A 
separate  existence,  even  in  the  partial  sense  that  is  true 
of  other  types,  it  has  not  possessed.  Never  but  once  did  a 
school  of  legend-writing  grow  up  in  England  to  make 


DEFINITION  AND  USE  9 

English  legends,  in  any  way,  so  peculiarly  a  national  prod- 
uct as  English  tragedy  became  in  the  Elizabethan  period; 
and  that  school  soon  passed.  Yet  saints'  lives  have  had  a 
long  and  varied  course  in  the  history  of  English  letters, 
with  marked  variations  in  manner  from  time  to  time  and 
with  equally  well-marked  times  of  florescence.  Depend- 
ent at  almost  every  step  for  materials  and  even  for  style 
on  models  which  were  foreign  at  least  in  language,  the 
genre  has  yet  blazed  a  distinguishable  trail  that  may  be 
followed  by  and  for  itself.  More  frequently  than  is  the 
case  with  most  types,  one  must  view  the  legend  in  its  in- 
ternational relations,  for  only  by  this  means  can  one  get  a 
proper  sense  of  perspective;  but  one  is  justified  in  study- 
ing the  national  product  by  itself,  and  even  in  temporarily 
isolating  it. 

Another  problem,  immediately  connected  with  the  one 
just  discussed,  is  this:  how  much  attention  should  be  paid 
in  an  account  of  English  lives  of  saints  to  legends  written 
on  English  soil  and  by  natives  of  Great  Britain  but  in 
Latin  or  French?  The  question  is  complicated  by  the  fact 
that  both  these  languages  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as 
foreign  to  the  writers  and  readers  of  saints'  legends  at  the 
times  when  the  type  was  most  influential.  To  neglect 
legends  written  under  purely  native  inspiration  because 
the  authors  chose  to  put  them  in  a  tongue  that  was 
equally  familiar  to  them  with  English,  and  that  had  to 
their  minds  greater  dignify,  would  make  us  lose  sight  of 

important  links  in  the  development  of  the  type.   At  the 

same  time,  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  give  an  account  of 


10  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

all  the  lives  in  French  or  Latin  that  happened  to  be  writ- 
ten on  English  soil.  The  safest  procedure  seems  to  be  to 
include  those  that  can  be  shown  to  have  had  any  marked 
influence  on  the  genre,  whether  by  way  of  inspiration  to 
other  writers  or  as  necessary  factors  themselves  in  the 
story  of  the  type. 

Whatever  may  be  true  of  saints'  lives  in  other  litera- 
tures, in  English  the  genre  is  prevailingly  mediaeval. 
Coming  in  with  the  dawn  of  Christianity  on  the  horizon 
of  our  Germanic  forefathers,  it  flourished  without  inter- 
mission through  the  political  and  religious  changes  of  the 
eight  following  centuries  and  declined  only  at  the  Refor- 
mation. Slight  as  was  the  religious  character  of  that 
movement  in  its  first  stages,  it  was  accompanied  by  so 
many  revolutionary  phenomena  and  resulted  in  such  far- 
reaching  alterations  in  the  fabric  of  the  national  life  that 
for  some  centuries  thereafter  the  legend  had  a  precarious 
and  almost  negligible  existence.  Though  still  beloved  by 
a  minority,  it  did  not  retain  sufficient  hold  on  the  people 
at  large  to  make  its  continued  life  a  factor  of  importance. 
The  attitude  of  mind  had  changed;  and  popular  sym- 
pathy, without  which  no  literary  form  can  have  real 
vitality,  was  diverted.  Catholic  in  a  broad  sense  the 
legend  must  always  be,  as  our  definition  above-stated 
demands;  and  catholicity  of  temper  was  not  a  marked 
trait  of  the  centuries  following  the  Reformation.  The 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  witnessed  a  gradual 
return  on  the  part  of  an  influential  section  of  the  public 
to  habits  of  thought  long  neglected  and,  with  this  return, 


DEFINITION  AND  USE  11 

B  partial  recrudescence  of  legend-writing.  Without  fully 
recovering  its  vitality  and  with  considerable  change  in 
its  nature,  it  has  been  regaining  little  by  little  its  lost 
place  in  literature.  Yet,  when  all  is  said,  the  type  that 
we  are  studying  can  best  be  observed  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

It  is  on  this  account  that  one  does  well  to  approach  the 
lives  of  saints  with  as  few  prepossessions  against  the 
mediaeval  spirit  as  may  be.  In  studying  their  origins  and 
determining  the  historical  truth  of  their  narratives,  of 
course,  whatever  aid  can  be  found  in  modern  scientific 
method  must  be  used  fearlessly.  A  shattered  tradition  is 
not  to  be  weighed  against  the  truth.  But  in  appreciating 
I  lie  position  of  legends  in  the  past,  their  worth  and  influ- 
ence in  the  light  of  a  former  day,  one  must,  as  far  as 
possible,  regard  them  as  did  the  men  of  that  time.  From 
this  point  of  view,  which  I  believe  to  be  the  correct  one 
for  the  historian  of  the  genre,  fable  has  no  less  worth 
than  veracious  narrative.  In  tracing  the  progress  of  a 
literary  type  that  has,  historically  speaking,  often  been 
nourished  on  error,  the  mistake  would  be  to  lose  sight 
of  the  goal  in  a  continual  estimation  of  truth  or  falsity. 

The  legends  were  written,  it  is  true,  as  history,  and 
were  so  accepted  by  the  world  of  believers;  but  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  to  the  Middle  A<,res,  as  to  antiquity, 
history  meant  something  very  different  from  what  it 
means  to  us.  Cicero  and  Quintilian  define  the  historian's 
ta^k  in  phrases  that  make  us,  who  vaunt  OUT  scientific 
spirit,  recoil  with  horror.   To  them  literary  effect  was  the 

paramount  consideration;  critical  investigation  of  fact 


12  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

was  of  secondary  importance.  \Vhere  certain  knowledge 
was  procurable,  the  author's  plain  duty,  as  conceived  by 
Tacitus  or  Bede,  was  to  record  the  facts  veraciously;  but 
he  might  permit  himself  to  heighten  effects  when  his 
sense  of  literary  art  demanded,  and  he  had  no  notion  of 
ascertaining  the  truth  by  patient  sifting  of  evidence. 
Thus,  in  the  case  of  legend  writers,  style  for  the  most 
part  was  substituted  for  research,  and  error,  once  ad- 
mitted, had  small  chance  of  subsequent  detection. 

The  question  is  sometimes  asked  whether  all  persons 
in  the  old  times  believed  the  crudely  fabulous  tales  that 
were  related  about  so  many  saints.  When  the  answer  is 
given,  as  it  must  be  with  assurance,  that  even  the  best- 
educated  men  seem  to  have  held  faith  in  some  of  these 
things,  the  most  unfavorable  inferences  are  drawn*  as  to 
their  intelligence.  Such  contempt  is  unworthy  and  re- 
flects no  credit  on  those  who  feel  it.  Let  the  reader  con- 
sider how  far  his  unaided  acumen  would  penetrate  the 
mists  of  the  world;  and  let  him  remember  that  the  tend- 
ency to  rely  on  authority,  which  has  been  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  the  race,  fostered  just  such  belief.  At  the  same 
time,  it  seems  clear  that,  all  along,  certain  independent 
and  outstanding  spirits  held  the  right  to  doubt.  Professor 
Gtinter  calls  attention  to  the  striking  fact  that  the  great 
theologians  of  the  Middle  Ages  never  rested  their  schol- 
arly speculations  on  evidence  drawn  from  the  miracles  of 
the  saints.  Presumably  they  regarded  these  wonders  as 
matters  of  faith  rather  than  of  knowledge.  Furthermore, 
there  has  always  been  shown  by  the  greater  writers  a 


DEFINITION  AND  USE  13 

tendency  to  discriminate  between  different  classes  of 
legendary  stories  and  to  discard  the  baser  sort. 

The  saint's  legend  is,  indeed,  a  literary  type;. but  it  has 
never  been  purely  aesthetic  in  aim  or  divorced  from  prac- 
tical  uses  in  the  uplifting  of  humanity.  Beauty  it  has  not 
lacked,  but  the  grace  it  has  most  cultivated  has  been  the 
beauty  of  holiness.  At  times  it  has  reached  great  eleva- 
tion of  form,  but  it  has  depended  for  its  effects  less  upon 
that  than  upon  loftiness  of  sentiment.  The  work  of  edi- 
fication has  never  been  long  absent  from  the  minds  of  its 
makers.  Its  power  has  rested  in  the  visions  of  righteous- 
ness that  it  has  brought  to  the  minds  of  common  men. 
The  straightforward  narratives  in  the  earliest  authentic 
acta  and  passions,  which  still  stir  the  reader,  must  have 
thrilled  to  the  soul  the  distant  co-religionists  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, to  establish  whose  faith  they  were  written.  In  the 
widely  separated  missions  of  the  early  Church  it  was  suffi- 
cient to  have  the  local  calendar  read  without  narrative 
attachment  to  recall  to  the  minds  of  the  worshippers  the 
deeds  of  those  who  had  lived  and  suffered  for  the  true 
belief.  In  this  way  such  calendars  and  martyrologiescame 
into  use  as  part  of  the  services  of  the  Church. 

As  time  went  on,  the  mass  of  tradition  accumulated. 
Saints  were  soon  celebrated  in  churches  and  countries 
other  than  their  own;  and  martyrologies  into  which  their 
names  were  adopted  naturally  added  brief  accounts  of 
their  lives.  AN«-r  tlie  fifth  century  at  the  latest,  as  is 
-leneed  by  Caesarins  of  Aries  and  Gregory  of  Tours, 
complete  legends,  instead  of  passages  from  the  martyr- 


14  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

ologies,  were  read  on  the  festivals  of  saints;  and  after  the 
eighth  century  they  became  a  regular  part  of  the  service 
at  nocturns.  Thence  grew  the  practice  of  making  col- 
lections of  legends  in  the  language  of  the  Church.  By 
the  tenth  century  the  use  of  legends  in  place  of  sermons, 
or  as  an  addition  to  sermons,  became  common,  which  led 
to  translations  and  to  collections  (or  legendaries)  in  the 
vernacular.  Isolated  stories,  usually  known  as  exemplg, 
many  of  which  were  derived  from  the  lives  of  saints, 
came  into  great  vogue  as  a  result  of  the  same  tendency 
in  homiletics.  The  growing  cult  of  the  Virgin  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages  accompanied  this  movement  and  fostered 
the  growth  of  encyclopaedias  of  pious  tales. 

Meanwhile,  outside  the  use  of  legends,  and  of  incidents 
from  the  legends,  inthe  churches  and  the  cells  or  refec- 
tories of  conventual  establishments,  there  was  a  con- 
stant and  increasing  demand  for  the  written  records  of 
the  saints  wherever  the  knowledge  of  reading  became 
common.   As  a  medium  for  the"  instruction  of  the  young 

... 

in  the  ecclesiastical  schools,  and'  for  the  amusement  and 
edification  of  adults  in  abbey,  castle,  and  town,  they 
were  used  and  beloved.  As  single  works  or  in  collections, 
they  thus  reached  a  wide  public  by  double  means,  not 
only  through  the  services  of  the  Church  but  also  through 
the  reading  and  the  hearing  of  them  as  polite  literature. 
The  chronicles,  moreover,  in  all  times  contained  accounts 
of  the  saints  that  were  both  read  for  themselves  and  used 
as  sources  for  other  lives.  Further  down  in  the  social 
scale,  legends   furnished   the   peasant   with   recreation, 


DEFINITION  AND  USE  15 

when  read  to  him  or  recited  to  him  —  perhaps  by  some 
of  the  vagabonds  who  were  his  mental  superiors  and  his 
social  equals;  and  they  gave  him  new  materials  for  fire- 
side tales.  All  classes  found  lives  of  saints  to  their  liking, 
nor  was  it  the  fashion  to  consider  them  dull.  They  were 
an  excellent  substitute  for  fiction,  but  they  were  more 
than  fiction. 

Legends  thus  became  fairly  early  a  powerful  instru- 
ment for  teaching  religion  and  morality.  They  were, 
moreover,  not  without  their  political  uses.  Vision  litera- 
ture, which  is  often  to  be  identified  absolutely  with  that 
of  saintly  lives,  was  used  with  powerful  effect  by  the 
Church.  Appeals  to  saints  through  visions,  and  visions 
attributed  to  saints,  not  infrequently  restrained  and  con- 
trolled secular  rulers,  when  more  direct  means  would 
have  been  ineffectual.  This  combination  of  religious  and 
political  literature  is  not  altogether  to  be  attributed  to 
pious  fraud,  for  very  often  real  mystical  enthusiasm  thus 
found  vent.  Uncritical  as  was  the  spirit  that  prompted 
and  accepted  it,  there  is  nothing  despicable  about  its 
course  as  a  whole.  In  the  careeB/of  St.  Catharine  of 
Siena,  for  example,  it  was  truly  admirable.  Prophecy 
has  never  been  considered  an  illegitimate  method  of 
leadership. 

The  legend  thus  permeated  the  religious,  social,  and 
political  fabric  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Whatever  its  abso- 
lute worth,  it  was  for  many  centuries  one  of  the  most 
influential  branches  of  literal  u.-e.  However  much  the 
world  may  have  benefited  by  tli  •  causes  thai    led  to  its 


16  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

decay,  we  must  regret  that  the  type  suffered  in  the  change. 
Latter-day  revivals,  even  in  non-Catholic  countries, 
seem  to  show  that  saints'  lives  still  have  a  meaning  and  a 
value,  though  they  now  appear  in  new  and  more  criti- 
cal forms. 


CHAPTER  II 
ORIGINS   AND   PROPAGATION 

N  studying  the  origin  of  saints'  lives  the 
primary  distinction  to  be  made  has  to  do 
with  the  saints  themselves.  On  the  one  hand, 
there  are  the  saints  of  undoubted  authen- 
ticity, as  to  whose  real  existence  there  is  no  shadow  of 
suspicion.  Whether  their  cults  were  established  by  lawful/ 
canon  of  the  Church  or  grew  up  irregularly,  their  his- 
torical position  is  assured.  Some  of  them  were  martyrs 
and  missionaries  of  the  primitive  Church,  some  bishops 
and  princes  of  the  age  of  Catholic  supremacy,  and  some 
men  of  pious  zeal  who  lived  in  centuries  not  very  remote 
from  our  own;  all  along  the  way  are  found  such  sentinels 
of  the  truth.  On  the  other  hand,  the  hagiological  record 
contains  a 'multitude  of  other  figures,  perhaps  equal  in 
number  to  the  first  class  and,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  legend,  of  no  less  influence  and  value,  who  are  in 
different  case.  Either  there  is  grave  doubt  whether  they 
had  historical  existence,  or  it  is  certain  that  they  never 
actually  jived.  From  every  century  till  the  later  Middle 
Ages  these  saintly  phantoms  are  reported.  They  were 
not,  for  the  most  part,  fabrications  consciously  invented, 
any  more  than  most,  fabulous  legends  wen-  forgeries;  but 
they  arose  Erom  mistakes  in  the  use  of  evidence  and  from 
popular  imogininga 


18  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

In  the  legends  concerning  these  two  classes  of  saints 
there  is  often  the  most  marked  similarity,  due  partly  to  the 
unconscious  imitation  of  the  true  by  the  false,  and  partly 
to  the  fact  that  the  stories  related  of  perfectly  authenti- 
cated characters  are  often  as  untrustworthy  as  those 
clustering  about  purely  fictitious  persons.  Indeed,  it  is 
a  grievous  error  to  suppose  that  by  proving  the  legend 
of  a  saint  to  be  false  the  historical  position  of  the  saint 
is  invalidated.  Certain  fabulous  elements  in  the  legends 
are  conditioned  by  origins,  it  is  true,  and  are  peculiar  to 
the  lives  of  saints  whose  personal  history  is  either  obscure 
or  certainly  unveracious;  but  almost  every  trait  in  the 
biographies  of  authenticated  saints  can  be  paralleled 
from  the  tales  of  the  fictitious.  The  tendencies  that 
affected  the  growth  of  the  one  affected  the  other  equally. 

The  constitution  of  the  legends,  as  we  find  them,  is  the 
resultant  of  two  main  factors:  documentary  evidence  and 
popular  imagination.  Considering  all  saints  and  all 
legends  by  and  large,  the  one  factor  is  of  no  less  impor- 
tance than  the  other,  for  even  with  the  histories  of  men 
and  women,  the  chief  events  of  whose  lives  are  perfectly 
substantiated,  the  myth-making  power  of  the  folk  has 
been  busy.  Whatever  is  spurious  in  them  is,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  due  to  the  unconscious  workings  of  the 
popular  mind.  Back  of  the  written  record  lie  the  tales  of 
country-side  and  town,  which  sprang  up  about  the  real 
or  supposed  personalities  of  the  saints.  That  they  grew 
quickly  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  immediate  followers  of 
church-leaders,  men  who  had  known  the  subjects  of  the 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  19 

biographies  they  were  writing,  often  gave  as  literal  truth 
stories  that  have  all  the  hall-marks  of  fiction.  Thus 
the  marvels  reported  of  Christina  MirabiUs,  a  Belgian  vis- 
ionary of  the  thirteenth  century,  though  she  was  per- 
sonally known  both  to  the  famous  bishop  and  cardinal, 
Jacques  de  Vitrv,  and  to  her  biogfapjjer,  Thomas  de 
( 'hantimpre,  exceed  those  of  almost  any  other  saint. 
They  are  partly  the  record  of  psycho-pathological  phe- 
nomena, partly  the  grotesquely  exaggerated  renderings  of 
such  phenomena  that  became  current  among  a  simple- 
minded  people.  Bertrand  of  Pontigny,  who  had  every 
opportunity  of  observing  Edmund  of  Canterbury  during 
the  latter's  exile,  in  writing  the  life  of  the  saint  includes 
an  account  of  a  contest  with  the  devil  which  is  a  com- 
monplace of  legend.  Similarly,  Lantfred,  a  monk  of  Win- 
chester, recounting  in  981  certain  contemporary  miracles 
of  St.  Swithin,  tells  how  a  prominent  citizen  encountered 
three  supernatural  women  on  the  meadows  outside  the 
walls  of  the  town  in  broad  daylight:  a  tale  that  in  its 
entirety  is  not  surpassed  for  wonder  throughout  the  do- 
main of  folk-story.1  These  authors  were  men  of  more 
than  average  intelligence  and  were  dealing  with  events 
of  their  own  times;  they  reported  with  obvious  sincerity 
of  belief  stories  that  found  their  origin  in  popular  imag- 
inings. Other  writers  recount  such  things  with  more 
reserve,  but  recount  them  all  the  same.  "It  is  credibly 
reported"  is  a  phrase  that  occurs  over  and  over  again  in 
the  works  of  the  hagiographers. 

1    It   ii  perbapi  fair  to  say  tint  ASlfric,  when  retelling  t lit-  miracle  in 
Bngliafa  a  few  jreail  later,  omits  all  tin-  introductory  marvels. 


20  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Unsubstantiated  miracles  and  unauthentic  episodes 
swell  the  later  versions  of  most  legends  to  an  appalling 
degree.  Once  launched  as  popular  tradition,  they  were 
sure  of  acceptance  and  perpetuation  both  by  writing  and 
by  word  of  mouth :  by  the  former  because  the  authors  of 
saints'  lives  in  general  were  content  to  record  what  they 
found  with  as  much  elegance  of  diction  as  they  could 
command,  by  the  latter  for  the  reasons  that  have  made 
folk  literature  the  most  vital  product  of  the  human  mind. 
When  individual  writers  of  trained  discernment  accepted 
impossible  stories  as  truth,  it  is  not  strange  that  people 
at  large  should  have  believed.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  critical 
sense  of  any  sort  is  the  last  quality  that  one  need  expect 
to  find  developed  by  the  throng.  Presumably,  the  folk 
would  not  be  so  fertile  of  imagination,  the  power  that  it 
does  pre-eminently  possess,  were  it  not  lacking  in  the 
ability  to  criticize  destructively.  For  other  genres  than 
that  of  the  legend,  literature  owes  much  to  these  qualities 
and  defects,  so  that  it  is  wiser  not  to  despise  even  their 
grotesque  manifestations. 

Along  with  the  general  tendency  of  the  people  to  ac- 
cept report,  to  embroider  narrative,  and  to  invent  expla- 
nations, should  be  mentioned  the  total  ignorance  of  the 
mass  of  mankind,  in  any  day,  as  to  the  laws  of  evidence. 
What  seems  for  any  reason  plausible  is  believed,  whether 
or  not  it  be  really  in  accord  with  facts  that  may  be  per- 
fectly well  known.  The  statements  of  the  first  witness  to 
be  heard  are  given  credence,  and  no  subsequent  evidence 
can  dislodge  the  conviction  that  the  events  in  question 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  21 

happened  thus  and  so.  However  complete  our  theoretical 
adherence  to  the  sufficiently  commonplace  notion  that 
even  eye-witnesses  usually  disagree  in  their  accounts  of  a 
happening,  every  one  of  us  finds  it  difficult  to  hold  the 
balance  of  judgment  between  them.  When  this  notion  is 
ignored,  as  it  has  been  by  all  traditional  histories,  the 
growth  of  the  hero-legend  is  no  matter  for  exclaim.  In 
spite  of  the  spread  of  education,  it  flourishes  to-day: 
France  has  its  myths  of  Napoleon,  England  of  Nelson,  and 
America  of  Washington,  not  to  say  of  Lincoln.  Our  news- 
papers teem  with  more  or  less  apocryphal  stories.  Further 
back,  the  myth-making  power  wove  whole  cycles  of  epic 
and  romance  about  the  persons  of  kings  like  Charlemagne 
and  Richard  Cocur-de-Lion  and  of  less  substantial  figures 
like  Beowulf  and  Arthur.  With  the  primary  object  of 
ennobling  chosen  heroes,  it  has  filched  from  one  to  enrich 
another,  has  jumbled  together  the  most  diverse  elements, 
and  has  egregiously  distorted  chronology.  "There  were 
once  seven  churches  here,"  a  not  unintelligent  old  woman 
one  day  said  to  me  in  an  English  village,  "but  all  save  this 
were  torn  down  by  Oliver  Cromwell  in  the  days  of  William 
the  Conqueror." 

The  growth  of  the  ecclesiastical  legend,  as  far  as  popu- 
lar e7ements"are  concerned,  has  been  parallel  to  that  of 
the  secular  myth.  There  has  been  the  same  tendency  on 
tin-  part  of  thelollowers of  the  groat  (and  the  great,  be  it 
said,  have  in  this  domain  happily  been  for  the  most  pari 

the  good)  to  sec  in  their  actions  the  evidence  of  super- 
natural power;  there  has  been  the  same  ready  acceptance 


22  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

of  whatever  tended  to  aggrandize  their  reputation;  there 
has  been  the  same  curious  apathy  to  contradictions  of 
evidence  and  excesses  of  fancy.  A  constant  belief  in  the 
merits  of  the  saints  has  done  much  to  accentuate  tend- 
encies that  mere  hero-worship  would  have  been  sufficient 
to  foster.  Arthur  and  iElfred  were  great  figures  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  but  to  Alban  and  to  Thomas  Becket 
they  could  appeal  with  assurance  of  aid  in  difficulty  and 
distress.  The  acts  and  miracles  of  the  saints  were  so  much 
evidence  that  they  would  find  in  the  saints  themselves 
mediators  with  the  Ail-Powerful;  and  they  inevitably  felt 
towards  them  more  warmly  than  they  could  towards  the 
old  kings  of  the  earth,  who  represented  merely  human 
glory.  It  was  the  intimacy  of  personal  association  that 
attracted,  as  well  as  the  worship  of  power.  How  could 
this  fail  to  stimulate  the  popular  imagination  and  to 
loosen  the  reins  of  fact? 

To  discuss  the  nature  of  the  miracles  attributed  to  the 
saints  is  not  the  business  of  the  historian  of  the  legendary 
type.  In  view  of  the  understanding  given  this  generation 
by  a  science  of  the  mind  that  is  still  groping  somewhat 
blindly  and  must  for  the  present  be  content  with  half 
explanations,  certain  phenomena,  which  a  century  ago 
must  have  been  accepted  wholly  on  faith  or  rejected  ab- 
solutely, now  appear  to  the  critical  mind  worthy  of  entire 
belief.  Other  deeds  and  occurrences,  equally  well  authen- 
ticated, must  still  be  matters  for  faith  and  skepticism  to 
battle  over.  What  can  be  done  is  to  preserve  a  tolerant 
mind  with  respect  to  what  is  beyond  our  understanding, 


ORIGINS  AND   PROPAGATION  23 

and  to  apply  to  all  deeds  of  saints  alike  the  processes  of 
investigation  that  will  enable  ns  to  say  with  some  measure 
of  human  certainty  that  such  and  such  recorded  events 
did  not  take  place,  while  such  and  such  others  actually 
did,  whether  or  not  the  explanation  of  them  found  in 
mediaeval  works  be  justifiable  or  absurd.1  In  such  a  pro- 
gramme of  study,  modern  scholarship,  both  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  is  properly  united. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  with  reference  to  the  popular  growth 
of  legend  that,  in  spite  of  extravagance  and  lack  of  critical 
sense,  even  the  most  apocryphal  of  lives  have  been  de- 
veloped with  some  logical  sequence".  Except  in  the  very 
late  Middle  Ages,  when  they  were  sometimes  put  together 
in  a  purely  mechanical  fashion,  they  show  what  Professor 
Giinter  happily  calls  "the  logic  of  mass."  There  is  a 
causal  sequence  in  the  order  of  events,  which  gives  the 
most  unveracious  of  lives  considerable  verisimilitude. 
Certain  miracles  follow  certain  others  in  a  traditional  and 
almost  necessary  order.  This  tendency  naturally  led  to 
the  use  of  unmeaning  formula1,  but  of  itself  was  service- 
able to  the  proper  growth  of  legends.  It  allied  them  to 
the  folk-story  and  gave  them  similar  power  of  self-pcr- 
petuation;  it  made  them  vital  as  nothing  else  could,  since 
no  tale  can  survive  in  tradition  that  does  not  possess  an 
adequate  plot.  Unlike  the  plots  of  most  consciously, 
wrought  fiction,  these  frequently  lack  a  pivotal  situation; 
but  t  hey  hold  the  attention  and  cling  to  the  memory  of  the 

1  No  unbiased  mind  can  any  longer  doubt  the  reality  <>f  the  itigmata 
Pram  it  of  Aeon,  fur  example. 


24  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

hearer  by  the  careful  linking  of  a  chain  of  events.  This 
element  is  most  apparent  in  the  case  of  legends  that  have 
been  most  completely  dominated  by  popular  tradition. 
Indeed,  one  would  not  be  far  wrong,  I  think,  in  saying 
that  the  folk-element  is  largely  responsible  for  the  greater 
vogue  of  the  more  unhistorical  saints.  There  was  prob- 
ably action  and  reaction,  the  thronging  of  worshippers  to 
a  particular  shrine  giving  rise  to  folk-legend  and  this,  in 
turn,  so  forming  itself  as  to  preserve  and  magnify  the 
memory  of  the  saint. 

The  element  of  documentary  evidence  is  only  less  im- 
portant in  the  formation  and  perpetuation  of  saints' 
lives  than  the  element  of  popular  imagination.  In  the 
case  of  historical  characters,  it  frequently  occupies,  as  of 
course  it  ought  by  right  always  to  do,  the  primary  place. 
Hagiographers  are,  after  all,  biographers;  and,  though 
they  have  sometimes  exercised  marvellous  freedom  in 
handling  their  material,  they  have  never  quite  given 
themselves  over  to  romance.  Whenever  it  is  possible  to 
arrive  by  any  means  at  a  first  or  even  second  hand  ac- 
count, it  will  be  found  that  the  record  of  events,  however 
much  embellished  with  marvels,  is  tolerably  straightfor- 
ward and  free  from  error.  The  miracles  themselves  will 
be  found  to  be  modelled  on  scriptural  events,  in  the  de- 
sire of  the  writers  to  force  a  parallel  to  the  glory  of  their 
spiritual  masters,  or  to  be  the  record  of  phenomena  open 
to  various  interpretations  but  not  impossible  of  belief. 
Bede's  life  of  St.  Cuthbert  illustrates  both  tendencies. 

Not  every  pretended  follower  of  a  saint,  however,  is  to 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  25 

be  trusted  to  give  a  truthful  biography.  It  would  seem 
that  authors  of  saints'  lives  considered  themselves  jus- 
tified in  pretending  that  they  were  companions  and  dis- 
ciples of  the  persons  about  whom  they  were  writing,  even 
though  they  might  be  some  centuries  removed  in  the 
matter  of  time  and  many  hundreds  of  miles  in  point  of 
space.  At  least,  they  avail  themselves  of  this  privilege  of 
imposture  time  and  time  again.  A  very  notorious  case  of 
such  fabrication  is  the  version  of  the  life  of  St.  Catharine 
of  Alexandria  which  pretends  to  be  the  work  of  Atha- 
nasius,  successively  the  master,  convert,  and  secretary  of 
the  saint.  Now  Catharine,  if  she  lived  at  all,  was  mar- 
tyred early  in  the  fourth  century,  and  this  pseudo- 
Athanasius  certainly  did  not  write  his  legend  till  the 
sixth  or  seventh  and,  most  probably,  not  till  the  ninth 
century.  Whatever  the  original  intention  of  the  writer, 
he  was  as  a  matter  of  course  identified  with  the  great  St. 
Athanasius,  who  flourished  at  Alexandria  in  the  fourth 
century.  A  ,. 

A_  secondary  effect  of  written  upon  oral  tradition  was 
tgjiarden  and  fix  its  form.  Like  folk-literature  of  every 
kind,  legends,  as  they  circulated  among  the  people,  would 
be  exceedingly  fluid  in  their  nature  and  readily  capable 
of  union  or  severance.  Once  written  down,  they  became 
the  literary  property  of  the  Church  and  less  liable  to 
suffer  transformation  in  such  a  way  as  to  alter  the  essen- 
tial plot.  Authors  might  add  or  subtract,  but  they  did  it 
in  B  more  or  less  mechanical  way  that  left  traces  of  re- 
handling.  The  best  legends  with  reference  to  massing  of 


26  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

material,  it  is  safe  to  assert,  are  those  that  have  suffered 
least  from  the  literary  artificer. 

There  was  still  another  way  by  which  this  written  tra- 
dition affected  legend.  Such  versions  spread  far  and 
wide,  and  were  known  and  used  in  many  ways  by  clerics 
and  laymen.  By  means  of  this  use  they  permeated  the 
consciousness  of  the  people  in  general  and,  by  degrees, 
returned  to  the  state  of  oral  tradition.  In  every  country 
of  Europe,  but  more  especially  in  those  whose  inhabitants 
adhere  to  the  Greek  or  Catholic  faith,  are  still  to  be  found 
fireside  tales  of  saints,  which  must  have  'iome  to  the  people 
in  the  first  place  through  the  medium  of  written  docu- 
ments. From  the  folk  to  the  folk  the  circle  was  thus 
rounded. 

Without  attempting  to  make  what  would  be  beyond 
the  scope  of  this  book,  an  ordered  narrative  of  the  propa- 
gation of  saints'  lives  from  the  earliest  times  down  through 
the  centuries,  it  will  be  well  to  trace  briefly  some  of  the 
steps  in  the  progress,  which,  dealing  much  with  the  ma- 
terials of  romance,  is  of  itself  highly  romantic.  The  sources 
whence  the  legends  sprang  and  some  of  the  general  stages 
of  their  development  need  to  be  borne  in  mind  by  the 
reader  who  is  to  follow  their  course  in  a  particular  liter- 
ature. Since,  as  stated  above,  there  is  marked  similarity 
between  the  legends  concerning  saints  of  best  authority 
and  those  concerning  doubtful  or  invented  figures,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  separate  the  one  class  from  the  other  in 
considering  the  elements  of  their  origin  and  the  chronol- 
ogy of  their  development.    Wherever  one  class  only  is 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  27 

affected  by  a  tendency,  it  will   be  easy  to  indicate  the 
Pact. 

As  far  as  the  saints  of  the  primitive  Church  are  con- 
cerned, the  greatest  credence  is  undoubtedly  to  be  given 
the  relations  of  eye-witnesses  or  well-informed  contem- 
poraries, and  such  fragments  of  legal  reports  as  have  been 
preserved.  Had  we  in  its  entirety  the  proconsular  report 
of  the  examination  of  any  martyr,  we  should  possess  a 
matchless  record.  Unfortunately,  these  reports  exist  only 
as  insertions  in  the  passions  of  a  few  saints,  the  bulk  of 
which  are  made  up  of  second-hand  relations.  Even  so, 
they  are  of  immense  worth  as  a  standard  of  comparison 
by  which  to  judge  later  accounts  of  the  same  saints  or 
pretended  accounts  of  later  saints.  If  one  places  side  by 
side  such  reports  of  examinations  by  magistrates  as  those 
contained  in  the  passions  of  the  Scillitan  martyrs  or 
St.  Cyprian,  and  the  academic  disputations  with  the 
Emperor's  viceroy  attributed  to  Catharine  of  Alexandria, 
it  is  possible  to  see  at  a  glance  that  in  the  former  we 
have  authentic  records  while  in  the  latter  only  exercises 
of  intellectual  subtlety.  The  genuine  fragments  of  re- 
ports, by  their  unadorned  simplicity,  have  the  power  to 
touch  the  feelings,  since  they  show  brave  men  facing 
death  without  ostentation  but  with  superb  constancy. 
The  records  of  eye-witnesses,  as  given  in  these  early, 
authentic  acts  and  passions,  have  the  same  straightfor- 
ward character.  Consider,  in  evidence  of  this,  the  ac- 
counts of  Polycarp,  of  Cyprian  again,  or  of  Perpetua. 
Excepl  in  the  case  of  the  saint  first  named,  the  martyr- 


28  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

doms  are  accompanied  by  no  marvels  that  need  excite 
distrust  in  the  most  skeptical  mind;  and  the  wonders  of 
Polycarp's  death  are  due  only  to  a  natural  exaltation  of 
spirit  on  the  part  of  his  followers.  A  vision  as  to  his 
death  came  to  him  three  days  before  he  was  killed;  the 
voice  of  some  person  invisible  encouraged  him  in  the  hall 
of  judgment;  at  his  execution  the  fire  surrounded  him  like 
a  cloud  and  did  not  burn  him,  but  was  extinguished  by 
the  gushing  blood  when  his  head  was  struck  off. 

Unhappily,  these  sober,  unmistakably  genuine  accounts 
of  the  early  martyrs  by  persons  who  were  sufficiently 
close  to  them  to  be  well-informed  as  to  their  lives  are  only 
about  a  dozen  in  number.  The  examination  to  which  Pro- 
fessor Harnack  has  recently  subjected  the  one  hundred 
and  seventeen  articles  in  Ruinart's  famous  Acta  Sincera 
shows,  in  agreement  with  the  work  of  other  modern 
scholars,  that  they  are  of  very  unequal  value  historically. 
Yet,  taken  as  a  whole,  they  present  a  striking  contrast 
to  legends  in  general.  The  more  authentic  acts  display  a 
marked  effort  on  the  part  of  their  authors  to  tell  faith- 
fully to  the  scattered  churches  the  simple  story  of  the 
martyrs'  lives  and  deaths.  They  certainly  represent  the 
temper  of  the  earlier  Christians  in  their  avoidance  of  the 
crudely  sensational  and  the  unnecessarily  controversial. 
Whatever  miracles  they  recount  seem  to  be,  for  the  most 
part,  the  subjective  interpretations  placed  upon  actual 
events  by  spirits  fired  with  lofty  enthusiasm. 

The  growth  of  the  legend  with  its  accompanying  fea- 
tures was,  however,  so  rapid  that  no  passion  written 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  29 

after  the  fifth  century  can  be  trusted  to  give  a  veracious 
account  of  events  as  they  occurred.  By  that  era  certain 
forms  of  torment,  certain  actions,  and  certain  types  of 
speeches  had  become  so  fixed  a  part  of  every  martyrdom 
that  even  the  records  of  contemporaries  were  highly 
colored  by  them,  while  popular  tradition  along  well- 
established  lines  prepared  an  abundance  of  unhistorical 
commonplaces  for  later  writers.  There  came  to  be  an/ 
etiquette  of  martyrdoms.  It  is  only  in  the  case  of  saints 
who  were  not  martyrs  in  the  sense  of  perishing  at  the 
hands  of  heathen  persecutors,  like  the  English  Oswald, 
Edmund,  or  Thomas,  that  we  find  records  in  any  way 
satisfactory.  The  acts,  as  distinguished  from  the  pas- 
sions, are  somewhat  more  trustworthy,  though  it  goes 
without  saying  that,  from  the  first,  romantic  distortion 
was  not  confined  to  the  deaths  of  heroes.  The  acts  do 
show  greater  variety,  however,  and  more  frequently  have 
a  basis  of  fact  along  with  the  fictional  embroidery.  To 
the  modern  taste  they  have  greater  interest  and  inspira- 
tion, though  the  men  of  the  Middle  Ages  appear  to  have 
taken  greater  delight  in  the  sensational  events  which, 
they  believed,  attended  the  deaths  of  the  saints. 

Perhaps  the  most  marked  influence  in  bringing  about 
the  change  from  the  simple  veracity  of  the  earliest  lives 
to  the  wild  romancing  that  was  prevalent  from  the  sixth 
century  onwards  was  neo-J'latonism.  The  speculations  of 
this  school  furnished  a  parallel  current  to  the  growth  of 
legend  by  means  of  folk  tradition.  Indeed,  though  they 
directly  touched  only  the  world  of  philosophical  learning, 


30  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

they  seem  to  have  sifted  down  to  me  masses  and  to  have 
altered  the  general  conceptions  of  life  held  by  Christians. 
The  theories  of  Iamblichus  the  Syrian  as  to  the  su- 
premacy of  mind  over  matter  and  a  transcendental  life, 
when  translated  into  more  concrete  form,  were  well  cal- 
culated to  stir  the  enthusiasm  of  believers.  Without  ac- 
cepting in  their  entirety  the  conclusions  of  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Lucius,  one  can  have  no  manner  of  doubt  that  the 
mystical  elements  in  neo-Platonism  had  a  powerful  influ- 
ence in  the  establishment  of  the  cults  of  the  saints.  The 
writings  of  the  Pseudo-Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  which 
are  first  mentioned  in  the  sixth  century,  make  us  under- 
stand how  the  Christian  mystics  applied  the  philosophical 
doctrines  to  the  exposition  of  their  religion.  They  are  the 
work  of  a  man  who  was  at  once  philosopher  and  enthu- 
siastic mystic,  and  they  were  a  factor  of  importance  in 
the  development  of  legend  from  the  beginning  of  the 
sixth  century  onwards. 

Aside  from  the  authentic  acts,  there  grew  up,  both 
t  before  and  after  the  influence  just  mentioned,  a  series  of 
|  saints'  lives  that  may  best  be  termed  historical  romances. 
The  method  by  which  they  developed  was  the  addition 
of  the  probable  to  the  known.  The  class  is  very  large  and 
has  representatives  from  every  century.  They  are  not  to 
be  called  forgeries,  for  the  most  part,  since  they  are 
largely  the  product  of  cumulative  tradition  and  seem  not 
to  have  risen  through  the  conscious  imagining  of  any  one 
person.  Two  varieties,  with  reference  to  their  subjects, 
may  be  recognized.    There  are,  first,  the  legends  that 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  31 


weave  about  historical  characters  a  tissue  of  imagination, 
more  or  less  probable  of  itself  but  entirely  lacking  in 
documentary  authority;  and,  secondly,  there  are  the 
legends  that  contain  in  setting  and  events  certain  ele- 
ments of  historical  truth,  but  none  whatever  as  far  as 
the  personalities  of  the  saints  themselves  are  concerned. 
From  the  former  class  should  be  excluded,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  draw  the  line  of  demarcation,  a  large  number 
of  legends,  which  have  as  their  subjects  real  persons 
but  which  treat  them  without  the  slightest  verisimilitude. 
These  historical  romances  arc  not  always  adorned  with 
miracles.  Consider,  for  example,  the  story  of  Julitta  and 
her  son  Cyricus,  who  were  said  to  have  suffered  in  the 
Diocletian  persecutions.  It  has  the  sobriety  and  sim- 
plicity of  manner  that  characterizes  the  most  authentic 
passions.  Julitta  did  not  court  martyrdom;  but,  when 
face  to  face  with  her  persecutor  Alexander,  she  repeated 
steadfastly  her  confession:  "I  am  a  Christian."  When 
her  little  son,  who  was  only  three  years  old,  had  uttered 
the  same  words  in  imitation  of  her  and  had  been  slain  by 
the  furious  governor,  she  went  to  her  own  death  unat- 
tended by  wonders  but  with  unshaken  courage.  The  im- 
possible monstrosity  of  the  tyrant  marks  the  legend  as 
romance,  but  it  is  fiction  of  a  worthy  sort.  Sometimes 
these  romances  are  furnished  with  an  abundance  of  pre- 
tended  documentary  evidence,  which  gives  them  a  spe- 
cious air  of  veracity.    The  very  ancient  Passio  SancH 

PrOCOjdi,  which  represents  the  first  stage  of  a  long  leg- 
endary progress,  admirably  illustrates  this  tendency.    A 


32  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

comparison  with  the  brief  account  of  the  saint  given  by 
Eusebius  in  his  Ecclesiastical  History  shows  that  the  pas- 
sion, in  spite  of  the  imperial  edicts  and  legal  reports  that 
it  contains,  has  no  authority;  yet  it  only  elaborates  on  a 
basis  of  fact. 

To  the  same  class  of  historical  romances  dealing  with 
real  persons  belong  such  of  the  apocryphal  legends  of 
Christ,  of  the  Virgin,  and  of  the  Apostles  as  are  not  merely 
tales  of  fantasy.  It  was  not  unnaturallhat  popular  imagi- 
nation should  busy  itself  with  those'  ^periods  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  which  the  canonical  Gospels  left  blank,  nor  that  it 
should  seek  to  supply  the  gaps  in  the  scriptural  records 
of  Mary  and  the  Apostles.  To  detail  the  processes  by 
which  this  was  accomplished  would  take  overlong;  but 
the  works  themselves,  most  of  which  are  accessible  in 
English  to  the  reader,  show  on  the  most  casual  perusal 
how  tradition  worked  from  the  known  to  the  unknown, 
from  the  actual  to  the  probable.  So  the  childhood  of 
Christ  was  pieced  together;  the  history  of  the  Magi  was 
elaborated;  incidents  of  the  journey  to  Egypt  were  in- 
vented to  supplement  the  curt  statement  of  the  New 
Testament;  and  the  life  at  Nazareth  was  filled  out  with 
homely  details.  These  apocryphal  stories  emphasized  the 
humanity  of  Jesus  and  found  favor  by  means  of  combin- 
ing realism  with  miracle.  On  the  other  hand,  the  additions 
to  the  life  of  the  Virgin  brought  into  relief,  rather,  her 
position  as  the  Mother  of  God,  and  became  increasingly 
popular  as  her  cult  gained  influence  and  authority.  In 
the  later  Middle  Ages  a  host  of  miracles,  most  of  them 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  33 

fantastic  and  some  of  them  blasphemous  —  what  are 
known  as  ^lary  legends  —  came  to  be  attached  to  her 
name.  They  testify  to  the  power  of  her  cult,  while  they 
illustrate  both  the  heights  and  the  depths  of  legendary 
invention. 

The  earlier  apocryphal  acts  of  the  Apostles  are  his- 
torical romances  in  the  truest  sense.  Based  on  scriptural 
hints  or  scriptural  silences,  they  elaborated  the  mission- 
ary activities  and  the  passions  of  the  followers  of  Christ. 
Early  in  the  second  century  arose  a  work  called  the 
Surtes  Apostolorum,  which  told  how  the  Twelve  cast  lots 
to  determine  to  what  country  each  should  go,  and  how 
they  set  forth  to  the  various  lands  thus  assigned  them. 
Later  there  grew  up  a  cycle  of  legends  dealing  with  the 
adventures  of  particular  members  of  the  group.  So 
Thomas  and  Bartholomew  in  India,  Andrew  in  Scythia 
or  Achaia,  Peter  and  Paul  in  Rome,  Philip  in  Phrygia, 
and  the  other  Apostles  elsewhere,  came  to  be  the  subjects 
of  elaborate  romances.  These  later  legends  were  often 
written  to  celebrate  the  history  of  particular  churches  or 
to  express  doctrines  that  the  Church  deemed  heretical, 
though  they  always  remained  popular  in  tone  and  for 
the  most  part  represent ed  genuine,  if  mistaken,  folk  tra- 
ditions. Among  such  apocryphal  writings,  condemned  by 
Pope  Gelasius  in  the  fifth  century  as  heretical  and  un- 
worthy of  belief,  one  of  the  best  beloved  was  the  romance 
of  Paul  ami  Thecla.  In  spite  of  the  denunciation  of  the 
Church,  1 1 1 i -.  work  deserved  to  retail]  its  popularity,  as 
it  actually  did,  lor  it  possessed  something  of  the  matter- 


34  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

of -fact  simplicity  of  the  authentic  acts  and  recorded  even 
the  miracle  by  which  Thecla  was  saved  from  wild  beasts 
in  a  sententious  rather  than  ecstatic  manner.  This  legend 
really  stands  on  middle  ground  between  the  two  varieties 
of  historical  romances  above-mentioned.  By  virtue  of  the 
appearance  of  St.  Paul  it  belongs  with  those  dealing  un- 
veraciously  with  real  persons,  while  by  the  introduction 
of  Thecla,  as  well  as  by  its  form,  it  is  to  be  placed  among 
the  later,  elaborated  romances. 

A  more  adequate  representative  of  the  latter  class  is 
the  legend  of  Catharine  of  Alexandria.  Though  the  saint 
cannot  be  shown  to  have  had  actual  existence,  her  story 
is  by  no  means  out  of  accord  with  the  times  in  which  it 
is  placed.  She  has  been  identified  with  considerable  show 
of  probability  as  a  legendary  transformation  of  the  cele- 
brated Hypatia,  though  it  is  equally  possible  that  she 
represents  the  unnamed  Alexandrian  lady,  mentioned  by 
Eusebius,  who  suffered  under  Diocletian.  The  historical 
foundation  for  the  story  is  confined,  in  any  case,  to  the 
merest  hint;  but  the  setting  does  not  lack  verisimilitude. 
Were  it  not  for  the  harangues  of  the  saint  before  her 
judges,  which  are  in  the  worst  possible  taste,  and  the 
extravagance  of  the  miracles  that  accompanied  her  pas- 
sion, there  would  be  no  inherent  improbability  in  the 
legend.  Like  this  in  many  respects  are  the  legends  of  St. 
Cecilia  and  St.  Margaret.  The  historical  residuum  in 
both  is  slight,  but  the  events  narrated  do  not  violate 
what  may  be  called  the  decorum  of  history. 
'    A  fertile  source  for  the  unconscious  creation  of  new 


ORIGINS  .VXD  PROPAGATION  35 

saints  is  found  in  the  growth  of  the  menologies  and  mar- 
tyrologies,  which  by  the  third  century,  an<l  perhaps  be- 
t '<  >re,  were  read  in  the  churches.  The  earliest  were  merely 
calendars,  without  the  addition  of  biographical  details, 
and  included  none  but  local  saints.  From  the  fifth  cen- 
t  ury  onward,  however,  even  local  martyrologies  contained 
the  mention  of  both  foreign  and  native  martyrs,  confes- 
sors, and  bishops,  while  general  works  were  compiled  from 
these  which  gathered  together  without  caution  or  criti- 
cism notices  of  saints  from  all  lands.  The  resulting  con- 
fusion furnishes  many  curiosities  of  hagiological  lore.  As 
the  same  saint  was  not  infrequently  celebrated  on  differ- 
ent days  by  different  churches,  it  is  not  strange  that  doub- 
lets and  even  triplets  should  have  arisen.  So  we  find  two 
Martins,  one  bishop  of  Tours  and  one  of  France,  and 
three  sets  named  Cosmo  and  Damian.  Mistaken  readings 
of  manuscripts  gave  rise  to  new  saints,  like  the  Tribulus 
who  was  made  from  the  name  of  a  Phoenician  town,  the 
Cuminia  who  came  into  being  from  a  misunderstanding 
as  to  the  place-name  Eumenia,  or  Amphihalus,  the  con- 
or  saved  by  St.  Alban,  who  was  created  by  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth's  mistaking  a  chasuble  for  a  man.  Simi- 
larly, the  legend  that  Pope  Eleutherius  received  a  letter 
from  a  certain  King  Lucius  of  Britain,  asking  for  the 
introduction  <>f  Christianity  into  the  island,  was  due  in 
a  quite  natural  mistake  in  interpreting  an  entry  in  the 
Liber  Pontificalia.  Lucius  was  really  a  king  of  Ldessa  in 
Asia  Minor,  though  he  persisted  in  the  English  chron- 
icles for  many  centuries.    A  Qol  less  common  result  was 


36  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  transference  of  events  from  the  life  of  one  saint  to 

that  of  another  who  bore  the  same  name. 
I 

This  latter  process,  however,  was  not  confined  to  cases 
|  of  simple  transference.  This  grafting  of  legend  upon 
legend,  the  habit  of  borrowing  from  the  history  of  one 
I  saint  to  celebrate  another,  had  a  variety  of  forms.  Leav- 
!  ing  aside,  as  we  ought  always  to  do,  the  instances  which 
can  be  proved  to  have  arisen  by  conscious  fraud,  there 
are  abundant  examples  to  illustrate  the  tendency  of  a 
later  legend  to  absorb  the  matter  of  an  earlier.  So  Cas- 
tissima  and  Euphrosyne,  Barbara  and  Irene,  Onesimus 
and  Alexis,  are  doublets.  Similarly,  the  earlier  version  of 
St.  Christopher's  life  was  transferred,  when  it  reached 
France,  to  St.  Savinianus  of  Troyes,  who  had  probably 
lacked  a  history  before.  The  crucifix,  which  appeared  be- 
tween the  horns  of  a  stag  at  the  conversion  of  St.  Eustace, 
is  found  also  in  the  legends  of  Hubert,  Meinulph  of  Pa- 
derborn,  and  Felix  of  Valois,  saints  of  the  eighth,  ninth, 
and  thirteenth  centuries  respectively.  A  case  of  borrow- 
ing, not  very  different  from  the  above,  in  that  it  relates 
to  a  vision  of  Christ,  connects  the  founder  and  first  abbot 
of  Vallombrosa,  John  of  Gualberto,  with  an  unnamed 
vassal  of  Richard  I.  of  England.  Each  forgave  the  mur- 
derer of  his  father  and  was  rewarded  by  having  the  image 
of  Christ  on  the  altar  bow  to  him,  as  he  knelt  in  church 
on  Good  Friday.  Roger  of  Wendover,  who  tells  the  latter 
story  in  his  Chronicle,  makes  King  Richard  witness  the 
scene  and  forgive  the  knight  for  trespass. 

This  tendency  to  transfer  and  amalgamate  gave  rise 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  37 

very  early  to  formula?,  which  were  used  by  popular  tradi- 
tion as  well  as,  it  must  be  said  with  regret,  by  particular 
hagiqgraphers  to  embellish  certain  situations  likely  to 
arise  in  the  lives  of  many  saints.  There  came  to  be  for- 
mula' for  the  disputations  of  persecuted  Christians  in  the 
face  of  their  judges,  forprayers  before  martyrdom,  and 
for  martyrdom  itself.  The  legend  of  Catharine  of  Alexan- 
dria is  the  classical  example  of  the  first;  those  of  the  same 
Catharine,  of  Barbara,  of  George,  and  of  Blasius  suffi- 
ciently illustrate  the  second;  while  instances  of  the  third 
are  even  more  common,  though  the  series  of  tortures, 
ending  in  death  by  the  sword,  which  Clement  of  Ancyra 
suffered  in  six  cities,  perhaps  marks  the  climax  of  such 
elaborations.  A  whole  class  of  saints  arose,  who  bore 
their  heads  after  death,  Denis  and  Christopher,  for  ex- 
ample. Formulae  relating  to  saints  other  than  martyrs 
arc  scarcely  less  prevalent.  Consider,  for  example,  the 
allegorical  dreams  by  which  mothers  are  informed  before 
the  birth  of  their  children  that  they  are  to  be  of  extraor- 
dinary merit  and  glory.  So  Columban's  mother  saw  a 
sun  rising  from  her  body  that  enlightened  the  world; 
Thomas  of  Canterbury's  mother  dreamed  that  all  the 
water  of  the  Thames  was  running  through  her  bosom; 
while  the  mother  of  .Kthelwold  of  Winchester  was  preg- 
nant, a  golden  eagle  was  seen  to  fly  from  her  mouth. 
It    ifl  a   temptation    to  say   ;il    once   th;it    sueh   stories  are 

mere  legendary  variations  of  the  annunciation  of  the 

Virgin,  somewhat  timidly  put;  but  it  would  be  unsafe  to 

•  ri  so  much,  since  similar  things  are  told  concerning 


38  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  births  of  secular  heroes  like  Theodoric  the  Great  and 
romance  heroes  like  Galahad.  Another  excellent  example 
of  these  stereotyped  happenings  concerns  the  miraculous 
fashion  in  which  bodies  of  saints  were  carried  from  land 
to  land.  The  bodies  of  some,  like  Mamas,  Julian,  and 
Liberius,  were  even  borne  over  the  sea  in  stone  coffins. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  possibly  the  most  famous  case  of 
the  sort,  the  arrival  of  St.  James  the  Greater  in  Spain, 
was  an  invention  of  the  ninth  century.  By  still  another 
formula  such  widely  separated  saints  as  Peter  and  Pat- 
rick overcame  in  the  same  manner  the  magicians  who 
opposed  them.  Peter  caused  Simon  Magus  to  fall  to  the 
earth,  when  he  had  lifted  himself  by  devilish  art,  and 
Patrick,  according  to  Goscelin's  life,  made  away  similarly 
with  an  unnamed  Irish  wizard.  Not  uncommonly  the 
rays  of  the  sun  furnished  support  either  to  the  garments 
of  saints  or  to  the  saints  themselves.  Such  a  story  is  told 
in  the  apocrypha  of  Christ's  childhood;  it  is  related  of 
Bridget,  Dunstan,  Kunegunde,  Chad,  and  at  least  a 
dozen  other  saints. 

The  names  of  saints  are  responsible  for  certain  other 
legends.  So  in  Germany  St.  Augustine  is  invoked  in 
cases  of  maladies  of  the  eye  (Aage),  and  in  France  St. 
Clara  with  the  same  purpose,  because  she  makes  a  person 
voir  clair.  Undoubtedly,  the  later  legend  of  Christopher, 
which  represents  him  as  bearing  Christ  across  a  stream 
on  his  shoulders,  arose  from  a  reverently  intended  pun 
on  his  name.  For  similar  reasons  Expeditus  is  the  saint 
appealed  to  in  matters  that  demand  haste,  and  Hippo- 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  39 

lytus  became  one  of  the  patrons  of  blacksmiths.  Such 
folk-etymologies  should  excite  no  wonder,  when  one  re- 
members how  it  has  always  pleased  the  unlearned  to  find 
a  meaning,  consonant  with  its  use,  in  any  term  that  is 
not  self-explanatory.  Moreover,  the  tendency  so  to  re- 
solve the  names  of  saints  at  one  time  became  a  fashion 
in  homiletics.  The  Legenda  A  urea  by  Jacobus  de  Voragine 
furnishes  more  illustrations  of  the  habit  than  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  count,  often  giving  a  double  or  triple 
interpretation  of  the  same  name. 

A  tendency  akin  to  that  of  transferring  legends  from 
one  saint  to  another,  out  of  which  all  the  phenomena  just 
mentioned  have  grown,  is  that  of  localizing  them  in 
convenient  and  satisfactory  places  quite  without  regard 
to  whether  the  saints  there  lived  and  suffered.  There  is 
probably  no  more  deeply  rooted  tradition  in  Christendom 
than  that  which  connects  Mary  Magdalene,  Martha, 
Lazarus,  and  their  followers  with  the  establishment  of 
Christianity  in  southern  France.  For  the  past  generation 
violent  and  destructive  warfare  has  been  waged  against 
this  cycle  of  legends  by  the  best-equipped  group  of  hagio- 
graphers  on  the  Continent,  yet  it  still  retains  its  host  of 
believers,  not  only  among  simple-hearted  folk,  to  whom 
the  struggles  of  the  critical  world  could  come  only  as 
distant,  echoes,  but  in  more  instructed  circles  also. 
Though  the  legends  have  been  shown  to  be  a  tissue  of 
falsehood,   the  work   partly  of  interested  and  dishonest 

churchmen,  partly  of  popular  imagination,  and  though  no 
record  of  the  tradition  is  older  than  the  eleventh  century, 


40  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

it  is  still  possible  for  writers  to  urge  with  ingenuous  seri- 
ousness that  Mary  and  her  companions  were  the  apostles 
of  Provence.  By  disregarding  certain  points  of  chronol- 
ogy, they  can  forge  a  pretty  chain  of  circumstantial 
evidence,  based  on  the  argument  from  possibility  to 
probability,  from  probability  to  certainty,  that  makes 
the  romance  plausible  enough.  Above  all,  they  place 
their  reliance  on  such  relics  as  the  sarcophagus  in  the 
crypt  of  St.  Maximin's  near  Aix,  which  is  nothing  else 
than  a  Gallo-Roman  tomb  of  the  fifth  or  sixth  century. 
There  is  the  ocular  evidence,  in  reality  both  the  source 
of  error  and  its  defender. 

What  more  natural,  indeed,  than  the  desire  to  connect 
great  works  of  nature,  or  of  a  by-gone  age,  with  heroes 
of  the  past?  Both  are  humanized  in  the  process.  If  a 
hero  of  the  same  locality  be  not  at  hand,  there  is  no  diffi- 
culty about  transplanting  one.  Popular  invention  has  no 
more  to  do  with  space  than  with  time.  Moreover,  it  deals 
thus  largely  not  only  with  saints  but  with  secular  figures 
and  invented  characters  of  literature.  Consider  the  an- 
cient sarcophagus  which  serves  as  the  tomb  of  Romeo 
and  Juliet  at  Verona,  the  burial-places  of  King  Arthur  in 
Great  Britain,  or,  to  compare  great  things  with  small,  the 
"Old  Curiosity  Shop"  of  London  and  the  perfectly  in- 
credible number  of  houses  in  which  Lafayette  is  reputed 
to  have  slept  during  a  comparatively  short  sojourn  in 
America.  Is  it,  then,  at  all  wonderful  that  St.  Patrick 
should  be  connected  with  so  many  localities  in  Ireland; 
that  the  burial-place  of  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria 


ORIGINS  .VXD  PROPAGATION  41 

should  have  been  believed  to  be  Mount  Sina^  that  Italy, 
France,  and  England  should  each  have  a  Sf.  Michael's 
Mount;  or  that  Cologne  should  possess  the  relics  of  the 
Three  Magi  and  of  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins? 

The  questions  as  to  the  transference  of  legends  from 
saint  to  saint  and  as  to  the  localization  of  cult,  which  we 
have  been  discussing,  lead  quite  naturally  to  a  still  more 
thorny  subject  —  the  relationship  that  subsists  between 
pagan  belief  and  the  growth  of  popular  Christian  legend. 
Such  contrary  opinions  arc  still  held  about  the  matter  by 
the  most  enlightened  and  liberal  scholars  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  give  the  general  reader  an  impartial  view  of 
the  matter.  Two  principles  must  be  borne  in  mind. 
First,  we  must  remember  that  resemblance  does  not 
constitute  identity;  that  because  the  characteristics  of  a 
I  (articular  saint  or  of  a  Christian  rite  have  points  of  cor- 
respondence with  pagan  myth  or  observance  it  does  not 
necessarily  follow  that  the  one  developed  from  the  other. 
In  the  second  place,  we  may  take  it  as  an  axiom  that 
ritual  always  survives  creed,  cult  doctrinal  belief;  hea- 
then usages  remained  influential  after  paganism  as  a 
religion  was  uprooted. 

With  reference  to  the  origin  of  the  saints,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  recall  that  the  cult  of  heroes  was  firmly  established 
in  Asia  and  Europe  ei  nturies  before  the  advent  of  Chris- 
tianity. Among  the  racea  of  India  and  the  peoples  of 
classical   antiquity,   as  well   as  among  our  own   remote 

ancestors,  the  line  <,f  demarcation  between  gods  and 

heroes  was  never  clearly  fixed.    The  mortal  traits  of  the 


42  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

dwellers  on  Olympus,  and  the  confusion  of  the  Germanic 
Beowulf  with  the  god  Beowa,  sufficiently  illustrate  the 
fact.  The  equivocal  position  of  this  class  of  heroic  beings, 
superhuman  but  yet  of  mortal  genesis,  undoubtedly  corre- 
sponds to  the  position  of  saints  in  the  Church.  Centuries 
of  belief  stamped  them  on  the  minds  of  men,  made  them 
a  necessary  part  of  creation.  Polytheism  itself  was  but 
k^a  delimitation,  in  one  sense,  of  hero-worship.  Now  the 
earnest  contention  of  conservative  scholars  like  M.  Del- 
ehaye,  in  combating  the  theory  of  such  writers  as  Usener 
and  Lucius  that  the  cult  of  saints  was  an  outgrowth  of 
the  cult  of  gods  and  heroes,  is  this:  to  postulate  a  sur- 
vival of  pagan  belief  is  unnecessary,  because  it  was  the 
martyrs,  and  the  reverence  in  which  their  relics  were  held, 
that  gave  rise  to  the  doctrine  of  the  intercession  of  saints 
and  to  the  development  of  ecclesiastical  legend.  Yet  even 
M.  Delehaye  has  to  admit  that  the  cult  of  heroes  predis- 
posed men  to  accept  the  cult  of  saints.  Indeed,  the  pres- 
ence of  the  one  could  not  fail  to  influence  the  growth  of 
the  other.  It  is  justifiable  to  conclude,  therefore,  that 
there  was  a  causal  connection  between  the  two,  even 
though  the  identification  of  particular  saints  with  gods 
or  heroes  must  not  be  accepted  incautiously. 

With  reference  to  this  matter,  it  is  important  to  re- 
member that  the  attitude  of  the  Church  towards  the 
customs  of  converted  races  has  generally  been  both  liberal 
and  wise.  The  missionaries  of  Catholicism,  in  all  cen- 
turies, have  tried,  wherever  possible,  to  adapt  pagan  rites 
to  their  religion  instead  of  attempting  to  uproot  them 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  43 

wholesale.  When  met  by  wizardry,  they  adopted  tactics 
which  made  them  appear  to  the  people  as  medicine-men 
of  greater  power.  This  probably  accounts  for  the  thau- 
maturgical  element  in  the  legends  of  great  missionaries 
like  St.  Peter,  St.  Gregory  of  Tours,  St.  Columban,  or 
St.  Patrick.  When  they  found  feasts  with  harmless  cere- 
monies, which  were  held  on  approximately  the  same 
dates  as  Christian  festivals,  they  permitted  their  con- 
verts to  have  a  free  hand  in  the  celebration  of  the  holy 
days.  Amalgamation  of  customs  would  inevitably  take 
place.  It  is  unjust  and  unscholarly  to  say  that  Christmas 
and  Easter  are  nothing  but  heathen  festivals  transformed, 
simply  because  certain  observances  of  them  recall  pagan 
celebrations  of  similar  date.  Once  established,  any  Chris- 
tian feast  would  attract  the  pagan  rites  customary  to 
that  period  of  the  year.  Naive  testimony  to  a  partial 
recognition  of  this  state  of  things  on  the  part  of  a  med- 
iaeval author  is  to  be  found  in  the  legend  of  St.  Mark, 
written  by  an  anonymous  Gloucestershire  monk  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  Wrhat  he  says,  put  into  modern  Eng- 
lish, is  this:  — 

On  liis  day  men  fist  through  all  the  land;  for  himself  is  it  not, 
Hut  for  reverence  of  the  banners  that  on  that  day  arc  forth  brought; 
For  men  bear  them  about  each  year,  as  tin-  meaning  thereof  is, 
To  pray  for  the  harvest  of  the  earth,  that  it  may  well  come  forth. 

This  i>  nothing  else  than  the  blessing  of  the  crops,  the 
spring-time  feast,  joined  to  the  celebration  <>t"  St.  Mark 
on  tin-  twenty-fifth  of  April.  Even  when  they  would,  the 
priests  were  not  always  abb;  to  destroy  old  observances 


44  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

and  beliefs,  which  accounts  for  many  a  dark  page  in  the 
history  of  superstition  as  well  as  for  many  a  pleasing 
survival  of  primitive  custom. 

Though  we  cannot  say  that  feasts  on  the  same  dates 
or  that  churches  on  the  same  sites  are  sufficient  in  every 
case  to  establish  the  identity  of  saints  with  gods  or  heroes, 
-it  is  perfectly  certain  that  many  saints  took  over  the 
attributes  and  legends  which  had  been  attached  to  such 
forbears.  It  is  better  not  to  say,  as  does  Mr.  Hartland 
in  The  Legend  of  Perseus,  that  "the  church  has  converted 
and  baptized  the  pagan  hero  Perseus"  in  the  person  of 
St.  George;  it  is  wiser  to  put  it  that  the  legend  of  the 
latter  absorbed  elements  from  the  story  of  the  heroic 
dragon-slayer.  The  resemblance  is  more  than  fortuitous; 
there  is  a  real  connection  between  the  two.  Similarly 
Danae  and  her  tower  of  brass  furnished  material  for  the 
legend  of  St.  Barbara;  the  myth  of  the  Dioscuri,  Castor 
and  Pollux,  was  the  progenitor  of  the  legend  of  the  good 
physicians,  Cosmo  and  Damian;  and  the  story  of  Epi- 
menides  has  essential  likeness  to  the  legend  of  the  Seven 
Sleepers  of  Ephesus.  The  Discovery  of  the  True  Cross, 
in  like  manner,  has  as  one  of  its  prototypes  Plutarch's 
account  of  the  translation  of  Theseus.  So  the  story  of 
CEdipus  became  attached  to  three  such  well-known 
figures  as  Gregory  the  Great,  Alban,  and  Julian  the 
Hospitaller,  as  well  as  to  less  conspicuous  saints.  In  all 
such  cases,  of  course,  the  adaptation  was  the  work  of 
popular  tradition,  slow  sometimes,  but  tenacious  of 
memory. 


ORIGINS  AND   PROPAGATION  45 

Whole  groups  of  legends  have  sometimes  been  formed 
by  this  means.   The  example,  at  once  most  conspicuous 
and  most  debated,  is  attached  to  the  various  names  of 
Pelagia,  Marina,  Margaret,  Eugenia,  Euphrosyne,  Theo- 
dora, Apollinaria,  Thais,  Mary  of  Egypt,  Papula,  Eudo- 
cia,  and  Afra.  The  stories  told  of  these  persons,  some  of 
whom  are  undoubtedly  real  and  some  fictitious,  are  of 
two  sorts.    On  the  one  hand,  there  are  accounts  of  a 
prostitute  who  was  converted  and  became  an  anchorite; 
on  the  other,  a  woman  who  clothed  herself  in  men's  gar- 
ments and  lived  either  in  the  desert  or  in  a  monastery. 
Of  some  of  the  saints  just  mentioned  both  legends  are 
related;  of  the  majority,  however,  only  one.    Various 
modifications  of  the  fundamental  traits  complicate  the 
narratives  in  some  instances  but  do  not  obscure  the  essen- 
tial attributes  of  the  tales.  That  a  woman  really  existed, 
about  whose  life  grew  up  the  legend  of  a  virgin  in  a  con- 
vent of  men,  appears  to  be  assured  by  a  recent  study  of 
M.  Clugnet,  who  makes  her  a  Syrian  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury.   Concerning  the  adaptation  of  pagan  material  in 
these  stories,  individually,  there  can  be  no  difference  of 
opinion.   Furthermore,  the  legends  of  the  group  of  saints 
as  a  whole  have  an  evident  relationship  to  one  another, 
shown  frequently  by  similarity  of  name,  and  always  by 
likeness  of  content.    What  is  still  a  question  for  debate  is 
the  theory,  first  advanced  a  generation  ago  by  I 'sener, 

that  all  these  sainis  are  merely  reincarnations  of  Aphro- 
dite or  \  enUS,  as  Worshipped  in  Asia  Minor. 

To  enter  Upon  a  long  diseussion  of  the  ease  would  be 


46  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

impossible.  I  can  only  draw  the  reader's  attention  to  a 
couple  of  principles  involved  by  the  debate  and  give  my 
own  conclusions.  In  the  first  place,  the  advocates  of 
Usener's  theory  have  certainly  not  been  careful  to  dis- 
tinguish with  sufficient  clearness  between  the  saints 
themselves  and  their  legends.  Even  though  it  should  be 
shown  that  all  the  materials  of  the  latter  were  drawn 
from  pagan  sources,  it  would  still  be  unnecessary  to  say 
that  the  Christian  Church  has  for  centuries  been  worship- 
ping Venus,  purified  and  disguised.  The  faithful  have 
held  in  reverence  certain  women  with  purely  fictitious 
histories,  many  attributes  of  whose  lives  may  have  been 
suggested  by  the  knowledge,  on  the  part  of  Levantine 
Christians,  of  rites  and  ideals  which  they  abhorred.  In 
the  second  place,  the  opponents  of  the  identification  of 
the  group  with  Aphrodite,  even  M.  Delehaye,  are  prone 
to  forget  the  survival  of  cult  and  of  popular  tradition, 
which,  even  when  they  have  lost  their  primitive  signifi- 
cance, are  capable  of  stirring  the  imagination.  The  leg- 
ends of  Pelagia  and  her  compeers,  to  my  mind,  represent 
the  profound  change  of  ideals  wrought  by  Christianity 
on  the  oriental  mind.  The  stories  could  hardly  have 
taken  the  form  they  did  —  and  the  form,  though  perhaps 
morbid,  has  elements  of  beauty  —  unless  there  had  ex- 
isted a  substratum  of  remembrance  of  pagan  belief.  To 
that  extent,  and  to  that  extent  only,  Pelagia  and  Aphro- 
dite are  one. 

By  all  odds  the  most  romantic  case  of  pagan  survival  in 
Christian  legend  is  that  of  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  who 


ORIGINS   AND   PROrAGATION  47 

are  celebrated  in  the  Roman  martyrology  on  November 
^7.  According  to  the  Christian  legend,  Barlaam  was  a 

Persian  ascetic,  who  went  into  India  and  converted  Josa- 
phat,  the  son  of  a  king,  whom  he  instructed  by  precept 
and  example  in  the  ways  of  Christian  living.  The  work 
is  ascribed  to  John  of  Damascus,  who  flourished  in  the 
eighth  century,  but  it/is  really  earlier  and  of  unknown 
authorship.  Back  of*this  ecclesiastical  form,  which  em- 
bodies the  apologia  of  the  Greek  philosopher  Aristides, 
as  was  first  shown  by  Professor  Kuhn  in  1893,  existed  an 
oriental  romance  of  wide  currency  and  great  age,  which 
was  written  to  inculcate  the  teachings  of  Buddhism. 
Barlaam,  in  point  of  fact,  is  none  other  than  Buddha 
himself.  Probably  the  book  was  introduced  to  Christian 
readers  by  its  first  translator  purely  as  a  romance  of  edi- 
fying tendency.  So  widely  did  it  become  knowm,  how- 
ever, and  so  seriously  was  it  taken,  that  the  two  main 
figures  were,  after  the  passage  of  time,  considered  his- 
torical and  received  into  the  company  of  Christian  saints. 
Scarcely  less  romantic  is  the  story  of  the  development 
of  the  various  legends  that  have  to  do  with  miraculous 
portraits,  images,  and  shrouds  of  Christ.  Perhaps  the 
form  of  the  belief  best  known  to  the  reader  may  be  the 
legend  of  Veronica,  which  relates  how  the  napkin  with 
which  Christ  wiped  His  face  on  the  way  to  the  cross  re- 
ceived the  impress  of  His  features,  was  preserved  by  the 

woman  who  proffered  it,  and  was  later  carried  to  Rome. 

Of  this  legend,  or  of  the  picture,  nothing  was  known  in 
Rome,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  until  the  beginning  of  the 


48  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

twelfth  century;  but  from  the  reign  of  Justinian  (527-565) 
/inwards  there  had  been  in  circulation  stories  about 
images  of  Christ,  of  wonderful  origin.  Similar  stories 
about  images  of  the  gods  were  known  to  the  world  of 
antiquity,  going  back  ultimately  to  the  worship  of  me- 
teoric fetiches.  Among  the  Greeks  such  fetiches  early 
came  to  express  the  close  relationship  between  the  person 
and  the  figure  of  the  divinity  concerned.  Belief  in  the  ex- 
istence and  protecting  attributes  of  heaven-sent  images 
was,  indeed,  common  to  many  places  and  periods  before 
the  Christian  era.  Back  of  such  stories  as  those  of  the 
statue  of  Pallas  Athena  and  of  the  Trojan  Palladium 
there  was  the  same  essential  notion  that  is  inherent  in 
the  Christian  traditions  mentioned  above.  Popular  be- 
lief seems  to  have  clung  to  this  idea  and  to  have  given  it 
a  Christian  coloring.  In  its  newer  form  there  was  fre- 
quently present  the  notion  of  actual  contact  between  the 
image  and  the  person  of  Jesus  during  His  lifetime;  but 
the  versions  differed  widely  from  one  another  in  their 
content.  These  Christian  legends  were  apparently  for- 
mulated, first  of  all,  in  Asia  Minor.  There  the  story  of 
a  mysterious  picture  was  connected  with  the  legend  of 
King  Abgar,  who  sent  to  Christ  for  healing  and  received 
a  letter  promising  aid  by  means  of  a  disciple.  In  like 
manner  the  legend  of  a  portrait  later  united  in  the  Occi- 
dent with  the  legend  of  Pilate  to  give  rise  to  the  fabulous 
history  of  Veronica. 

We  have  seen  above  how  an  oriental  romance  became, 
without  much  alteration,  a  Christian  legend.  Though  the 


ORIGINS  AND   PROPAGATION  49 

matter  has  not  yet  been  fully  worked  out,  there  ^an  be 
no  question  that  the  influence  of  romances,  chiefly  those 
of  Byzantium  and  of  western  Europe,  on  legend-making 
has  been  considerable.  The  difficulty  lies  in  deciding 
whether  a  particular  legend  has  really  been  influenced 
by  a  romance  which  it  resembles,  or  whether  the  two 
have  merely  drawn  upon  the  same  non-literary  source, 
some  floating  traditional  tale.  For  example,  the  legends 
of  St.  Alexis  and  St.  Eustace  bear  a  marked  likeness  in 
manner  and  material  to  the  late  Greek  romances,  save 
that,  like  all  of  their  kind,  they  have  a  sad  instead  of  a 
happy  ending.  Alexis  is  a  young  man  of  noble  birth,  who 
deserts  his  wife  on  their  bridal  night,  lives  as  a  beggar  in 
foreign  parts  till  his  sanctity  is  discovered  to  the  people 
by  miraculous  means,  returns  home,  and  dwells  as  a  de- 
pendent in  his  father's  house  until  his  death,  when  his 
identity  is  revealed  through  a  miracle.  It  is  supposed 
that  a  Byzantine  original  for  this  legend  once  existed, 
but  that  cannot  yet  be  proved.  The  story  of  St.  Eustace, 
the  Roman  general,  who  devoted  himself  to  the  faith  in 
consequence  of  a  vision,  was  tried  by  the  loss  of  property 
and  family,  lived  by  the  work  of  his  hands,  and  was  re- 
stored to  family  and  position  only  to  suffer  martyrdom, 
has  a  similar  resemblance  to  the  later  Greek  narratives; 

but  it  really  came  from  the  Far  Easl  and  was  rather  the 

parent  than  the  offspring  of  romance.    Yet  both  legends 

took   form   under  the  same  conditions  that    fostered    My- 

zantine  romances  and  throve  so  exceedingly  that  they 
helped  to  preserve  the  type  of  narrative  long  after  tin- 


50  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

more  purely  literary  product  was  dead.  By  the  eighth 
century  the  knowledge  of  many  such  stories  had  pene- 
trated the  farthest  regions  of  the  western  civilization,  as 
is  witnessed  by  the  works  of  the  Englishmen  Ealdhelm 
and  Bede.  Indeed,  the  tendency  of  legends  to  follow 
such  models  had  probably  spent  itself  a  couple  of  cen- 
turies before  that  time.  Thenceforward,  the  legends 
thus  created  were  pilfered  by  popular  fancy  or  well- 
meaning  writers  to  furnish  forth  newer  legends;  and  the 
legendary  commonplace,  as  I  have  said  before,  became 
rife.  Though  many  pious  tales  were  unquestionably 
brought  back  to  the  West  by  crusaders,  the  communi- 
cation between  the  empires  of  Rome  and  Byzantium, 
between  occidental  pilgrims  and  the  Holy  Land,  had 
long  before  been  sufficient  to  account  for  England's 
knowledge  of  oriental  saints.  Western  Europe  shared, 
besides,  the  common  heritage  of  wonders  in  the  Old 
Testament,  canonical  and  apocryphal.  These  miracles 
became  everywhere  the  models  for  legendary  imaginings. 
The  people  of  those  parts,  however,  made  an  original 
contribution  to  the  legendary  type  through  their  tales  of 
epic  valor  and  knightly  love.  Only  in  such  circumstances 
could  have  arisen  the  later  legend  of  Christopher,  the 
rude  giant  who  sought  Christ  because  he  heard  of  Him  as 
stronger  than  the  devil  and  served  Him  as  a  ferryman 
according  to  his  ability.  So  we  find  Vivien,  nephew  of 
Guillaume  d'Orange  and  himself  celebrated  in  four  chan- 
sons de  geste,  becoming  a  local  French  martyr  under  the 
style  of  Vidien .  The  heroes  of  the  romance  that  best  em- 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  51 

bodied  mediaeval  ideals  of  Friendship,  Amis  and  Amiloun, 
were  transferred  without  change  of  name  or  story  to  the 
calendar  of  saints.  Much  that  is  noble  in  the  legends  of 
the  Virgin  proceeds  from  the  notions  of  chivalry  which 
prevailed  in  the  world  during  the  era  of  their  formation. 
In  connection  with  the  localization  of  legends,  I  have 
spoken  above  of  the  tendency  to  weave  popular  stories 
about  monuments  of  nature  or  of  a  by-gone  age;  and,  in 
noting  the  confusion  of  martyrologies,  I  have  referred  to 
saints  who  have  come  into  being  by  a  mistaken  reading 
of  manuscripts.  A  source  of  legend  akin  to  these  is  found 
in  pictures  and  inscriptions.  The  synaxaria  of  the  Greek 
church  give  detailed  descriptions  of  the  appearance  of 
certain  saints  that  seem  to  reveal  the  knowledge  of  a 
contemporary,  but  are  in  reality  founded  on  Byzantine 
manuals  of  painting,  like  the  portraits  of  Trojan  and 
Greek  heroes  in  the  spurious  histories  of  Dares  and 
Dictys.  Similarly,  it  is  clear  that  the  whole  company  of 
martyrs,  of  whom  legend  relates  that  they  carried  their 
beada  after  death,  the  feghalophores,  arose  from  a  widely 
known  form  of  iconography^  The  pictures  of  Orpheus 
charming  the  beasts  doubtless  suggested  the  passage  in 
tin-  passion  of  Eleutherius,  that  represents  him  as  sitting 
on  an  elevated  place  and  preaching  to  the  animals  which 
surround  him.  Later,  the  idyllic  story  was  passed  <>n  to 
Other  saints.  B8  when  Bede  in  his  old  age  and  blindness 

addressed  the  birds  on  a  moor.  By  some  occult  psycho- 
logical transformation  the  same  tali-  may  have  suggested 
to  Francis  of  Assisi  certain  of  his  most  characteristic  atti- 


52  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

tildes  and  actions.  Sometimes  a  writer  even  gave  credit 
to  the  pictorial  source  of  his  words,  as  when  the  author 
of  the  panegyric  on  St.  Theodore,  attributed  to  Gregory  of 
Nyssa,  called  the  attention  of  his  hearers  to  the  paintings 
in  the  basilica.  Illustrations  of  the  rise  of  legends  from 
inscriptions  are  perhaps  unnecessary,  since  they  involve 
the  same  kind  of  error  as  those  proceeding  from  the  mis- 
taken reading  of  manuscripts.  I  might  cite  in  passing  the 
romantic  journey  of  St.  Abercius  to  cure  the  princess 
possessed  by  a  demon,  which  the  researches  of  the  Abbe 
Duchesne  have  shown  to  repose  on  a  misunderstood 
epitaph. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  transference  of  legends 
from  one  saint  to  another.  In  its  most  pronounced  form 
this  process  was  carried  so  far  by  hagiographers  as  to 
make  an  entire  legend  out  of  extracts  from  other  lives, 
sometimes  out  of  literal  borrowings.  Such  mosaics,  of 
course,  come  close  to  out-and-out  forgeries,  though  it  is 
not  necessary  to  suppose  that  in  the  majority  of  cases 
the  authors  had  any  culpable  intent.  Plagiarism  must  be 
judged  according  to  the  literary  ethics  of  each  offender's 
own  day.  Furthermore,  even  where  writers  copied  liter- 
ally, they  may  have  done  so  because  they  found  an  earlier 
life  that  corresponded  in  all  essentials  to  the  traditional 
account  which  they  were  to  put  into  writing.  Yet  it  is 
pitifully  true  that  cases  of  intentional  fraud  stain  the 
pages  of  the  legendaries.  For  authors  like  the  monk  of 
Malmesbury,  who  inserted  into  the  abbey's  chronicle  the 
account  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea's  fabulous  apostolate  in 


ORIGINS  AND  PROPAGATION  53 

Britain,  we  need  feel  no  tenderness  of  heart,  though  his 
story  has  enriched  the  literature  of  both  England  and 
the  Continent. 

The  tendencies  of  growth,  and  the  species  of  product, 
which  we  have  been  considering,  were  of  different  periods 
and,  some  of  them,  of  transitory  character.  As  a  literary 
type,  however,  the  legend  reached  its  fullest  development 
in  the  thirteenth  century.  In  that  splendid  age,  when  the 
flesh  and  the  spirit  of  men  were  so  thoroughly  imbued 
with  life  that  neither  the  widening  horizon  of  knowledge, 
nor  the  absorption  with  war  and  wealth,  nor  the  enthu- 
siasm for  art,  could  withhold  them  from  mortal  combat, 
both  the  vocation  for  saintlincss  and  the  cult  of  sainthood, 
found  their  complctest  expression.  St.  Dominic  and  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  represented  the  clashing  interests  of  the 
century,  but  each  possessed  the  same  enthusiasm  for  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  that  other  men  brought  to  the  service 
of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world.  In  the  history  of  English 
legend-writing,  as  in  the  history  of  the  type  at  large,  we 
shall  see  that  this  is  the  focal  point.  Never,  before  or 
since',  has  the  miracle  been  so  much  in  vogue,  never  has 
the  impossible  seemed  so  possible.  It  was  fanaticism, 
imagination  and  enthusiasm  unrestrained  by  reason,  if 
you  please,  that  fostered  the  growth  of  Alary  legends  and 
the  mysl  icism  so  characteristic  of  the  age;  but  the  fanati- 
cism  was  noble  in  origin  and  expressive  of  gloriously  rich 
human  vitality. 

Prosy  and  matter-of-fact  though  it  frequently  is,  the 
great  encyclopedia  by  Jacobus  de  Vbragine  nevertheless 


54  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

deserved  the  name  that  men  bestowed  on  it  —  Legenda 
Aurea.  The  Golden  Legend  was  representative  of  the 
thirteenth  century  in  the  same  way  that  the  Ecclesiastical 
History  by  Eusebius  was  characteristic  of  the  fourth,  and 
the  Glory  of  the  Martyrs  by  Gregory  of  Tours  of  the  sixth. 
These  three  great  collections  mark  well-defined  stages  in 
the  history  of  the  legend,  and  each  is  worthy  of  praise 
according  to  its  kind.  Some  may  prefer  the  narratives  of 
one,  some  of  another,  but  all  who  desire  knowledge  as  to 
what  part  saints  have  played  in  the  world  must  be  con- 
versant with  the  three. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   EPIC   LEGEND   IX  OLD    ENGLISH 

HE  early  history  of  Christianity  in  England 
is  involved  in  the  obscurity  that  rests  upon 
the  latter  part  of  the  Roman  occupation.  At 
just  what  date  and  by  just  what  means  the 
conquering  religion  penetrated  this  outpost  of  the  Empire 
can  never  be  satisfactorily  determined.  Legend  early 
busied  itself  to  supply  this  lack  of  information,  and  with 
its  wonted  success.  The  English  Church,  like  the  Galil- 
ean, was  made  the  fruit  of  apostolic  labors;  it  was  estab- 
lished by  Joseph  of  Arimathea;  it  was  founded  in  the 
second  century  by  Pope  Eleutherius  in  response  to  a  let- 
ter from  the  British  king,  Lucius;  or  it  was  the  result  of 
the  Blessed  Bran's  journey  to  Rome.  Fables  all,  as  we 
now  know.  Yet  these  legends,  rest  though  they  may  on 
wanton  forgery  or  false  assumption,  contain  a  slight  re- 
siduum of  truth  in  that  they  represent  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  Britain  as  taking  place  comparatively  early. 
From  the  evidence  of  Tertullian  at  about  the  beginning 
of  the  third  century  and  of  Origen  towards  fifty  years 
later,  though  both  speak  vaguely,  it  would  seem  that  the 
missions  of  the  Church  on  the  island  had  by  their  time 

made  some  progress.  The  legend  of  St.  Alban,  the  proto- 
martyr  who  suffered,  according  to  Gildas  ami  Bede,  under 
tin-  Diocletian  persecution,  is  certainly  apocryphal:  Pro- 


56  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

fessor  W.  Meyer  has  shown  that  the  earlier  form  of  the 
Passion,  which  was  written  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixth 
century,  placed  the  martyrdom  in  the  time  of  Severus. 
Yet  we  know  that  St.  Alban,  as  distinguished  from  his 
legend,  was  venerated  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury. We  know,  too,  of  the  presence  of  British  bishops 
at  the  Council  of  Aries  in  314  and  at  the  Council  of 
Rimini  in  359.  Indeed,  during  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies the  Church  was  firmly  established,  even  though  it 
may  never  have  won  during  the  Roman  occupation  the 
complete  adherence  of  both  the  governing  and  the  gov- 
erned races.  It  was  visited  by  a  great  prelate  like  St. 
German,  and  it  produced  in  St.  Patrick  one  of  the  great 
missionaries  of  all  time.  We  should  remember  that  the 
first  Christian  emperor,  Constantine,  though  he  neither 
established  his  title  nor  accepted  the  faith  till  some  six 
years  afterwards,  was  initially  proclaimed  (306)  at  York 
—  a  striking  indication  of  how  intimately  Britain  was 
concerned  with  movements  in  the  Empire  at  large. 

As  far  as  southern  Britain  was  concerned,  all  this  work 
was  by  degrees  undone  after  the  emperor  Honorius  aban- 
doned the  province  in  410.  The  inroads  of  the  Picts  and 
Scots  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  Germanic  invaders  on 
the  other,  gradually  overwhelmed  the  Church  in  the 
rising  tide  of  barbarism.  Although  it  is  clear  that  the 
Celts  held  to  their  faith  when  driven  westward  or  across 
the  Channel  to  Armorica,  it  is  equally  evident  that  they 
had  neither  the  energy  nor  the  organization  necessary  to 
carry  on  missionary  enterprises  among  the  victorious 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        57 

English.  In  the  latter  half  of  the  sixth  century,  St. 
(Yuhimba  carried  Christianity  to  the  Picts  of  the  North 
and  founded  the  great  monastery  of  Iona;  and  there  was 
constant  intercourse  between  the  insular  and  continental 
churches,  which  indicates  a  healthy  zeal  on  the  part  of 
( VI lie  Christendom.  But  until  the  coming  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, in  507  (the  year  of  Columba's  death),  the  English 
were  left  to  paganism. 

The  seventh  century  became,  then,  the  great  missionary 
era.  Augustine  and  his  successors  early  carried  their  work 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  Kent,  and  in  a  few  decades 
laid  the  foundations  of  what  was  to  become  the  dominant 
branch  of  the  Church  of  England.  Though  the  work  of 
Paulinus,  one  of  the  boldest  of  the  Roman  party,  who 
went  to  York  in  625,  was  overthrown  by  the  death  of 
Edwin,  the  equally  courageous  Aidan,  a  monk  from 
Columba's  monastery,  renewed  the  mission  with  perma- 
nent success  ten  years  later.  In  that  same  year,  Birinus, 
who  had  been  sent  out  by  Pope  Honorius,  baptized  Cy-  t 
ncgils,  King  of  Wessex.  Despite  the  quarrels  between  the 
Roman  and  Celtic  churches  concerning  matters  of  observ- 
ance, the  progress  of  the  faith  in  all  parts  of  the  island  was 
thenceforward  rapid.  How  solid  were  its  foundations  is 
indicated  by  the  establishment  of  monasteries  whiclu 
wen-  to  be  for  centuries  grand  focal  points  of  Christianity.  I 
Hilde  founded  Whitby  in  G57,  Etheldred  began  her  con- 
vent at  Ely  in  fJ7.'»,  the  Saxons  re-established  Glastonbury  1 

in  880,  and  in  68]  Benedict  Biscop  Bent  Geolfrid  from 

Wearmouth  to  head  the  new  monastery  of  Jarrow. 


58  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

The  conversion  of  England  thus  fell  upon  a  time  when 
the  legend  as  a  literary  type  was  fully  developed  in  older 
parts  of  the  Christian  world.  Most  of  the  tendencies 
discussed  in  the  previous  chapter  were  operative,  and 
nearly  all  the  influences  exerted  by  or  upon  saints'  lives 
were  already  present,  though  they  had  not  yet  reached 
a  climax.  As  far  as  foreign  saints  were  concerned,  the 
new  Church,  it  would  seem,  had  only  to  borrow  narra- 
tives from  its  neighbors.  These  it  could  translate  into  one 
or  another  dialect  of  the  vernacular,  when  a  need  of  popu- 
lar presentation  might  arise;  and  its  store  of  pious  nar- 
rative would  be  complete.  For  writing  the  lives  of  native 
saints  it  had  models  enough  and  to  spare.  They  could  be 
made  in  the  same  fashion  as  those  of  their  foreign  peers. 

With  such  a  simple  programme  possible,  it  is  not  a 
little  remarkable  that  the  first  lives  of  saints  to  be  com- 
posed in  English  should  have  taken  a  form  unique  in  its 
conception  and  vigorously  original  in  its  execution.  Al- 
though Ekldhelm  and  Ttede,  the  two  great  English  hagi- 
ographers  of  the  late  seventh  and  the  early  eighth  cen- 
turies, who  wrote  in  Latin,  followed  continental  models 
with  marked  distinction  and  success  both  in  verse  and 
prose,  the  purely  native  product  has  characteristics  that 
give  it  a  place  apart  and  a  history  of  its  own.  Instead  of 
copying  foreign  types/ it  ran  into  the  mould  prepared  for 
> .  the  native  epic.  This  form,  the  reader  will  remember, 
A^  came  to  its  highest  point  of  development  about  the  year 
700;  and  Beowulf,  the  only  heroic  poem  preserved  to  us 
in  its  entirety,  can  be  dated  with  some  assurance  as  a 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         59 

work  of  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century.  That  the 
poetic  impulse  which  produced  the  somewhat  sombre  and 
narrow,  but  very  noble  and  ardent,  native  epic  was  in 
full  force  at  the  time  of  the  missionaries'  arrival  is  shown 
by  the  simultaneous  production  of  two  types  of  heroic 
narrative,  the  non-Christian  and  the  Christian. 

The  literary  movements  of  which  I  am  speaking  took 
place  in  the  Xortp.  Whether  any  similar  development 
occurred  among  the  Saxons  of  the  South,  we  cannot  know 
with  certainty.  William  of  Malmesbury,  in  the  thir-' 
teenth  century,  tells  how  St.  Ealdhclm,  who  died  in  700, 
was  accustomed  to  gather  his  people  about  him  after 
mass  and  by  his  art  in  minstrelsy  make  them  listen  to 
stories  drawn  from  sacred  history.  He  cites  a  work  by 
King  /Elfred  as  his  authority  for  this  charming  tale. 
Unfortunately  the  book  is  lost;  and  we  have  only  William's 
testimony  that  English  poems  by  the  West  Saxon  abbot 
and  bishop  were  known  to  the  great  king,  and  that  he 
r«  tgarded  them  as  superior  to  all  other  poems  in  the  ver- 
nacular. What  they  were  like,  and  whether  they  repre- 
sented a  body  of  epic  verse  like  that  of  the  North,  it  is 
impossible  to  discover. 

We  do  know,  however,  that  the  extant  poems  were 
composed  in  Anglia  and,  during  the  .Elfredian  awaken- 
ing, done  over  into  the  southern  dialect.  In  Northumbria 
l'aulinus,  Aidan,  and  their  followers  met  with  a  school  of 
poetry  (it  would,  perhaps,  be  better  to  say  a  diffused 
power  of  poetic  utterance)  which  was  soon  turned  to  the 
service  of  the  Church.  From  the  story  of  Caxlmon,  told 


60  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

with  exquisite  refinement  of  sympathy  by  Bede  in  his 
Ecclesiastical  History,  we  gain  our  only  sure  knowledge 
of  how  this  came  to  pass.  Though  somewhat  adorned  with 
legendary  trappings,  the  tale  makes  it  clear  that  during 
the  rule  of  its  foundress,  St.  Hilde,  there  lived  at  Whitby 
a  simple-minded  and  unlearned  monk,  who  composed 
various  poetic  paraphrases  of  biblical  themes.  Further- 
more, there  is  little  reason  to  doubt  Bede's  statement  that 
this  man  entered  the  monastery  somewhat  late  in  life 
and  never  learned  to  read,  but  made  his  poems  from  what 
he  could  learn  orally  about  the  content  of  the  Scriptures 
and  the  doctrine  of  salvation.  Now,  since  Hilde  died  in 
680,  we  have  this  curious  phenomenon,  too  little  remarked 
by  students  of  our  oldest  literature:  certain  poems  of 
Christian  content  and  tendency  were  written  at  about 
the  same  time  that  the  greatest  example  of  the  Germanic 
epic  known  to  us  came  into  final  form  —  perhaps  even 
somewhat  earlier.  The  Christian  references  in  Beowulf, 
which  have  baffled  all  attempts  at  disentanglement  from 
the  poem  as  a  whole,  serve  to  confirm  this  view.  They 
are  there  because  the  author,  though  he  told  a  story  of 
pagan  times,  was  himself  a  Christian. 

The  fact  appears  to  be  that  the  missionaries,  on  enter- 
ing Mercia  and  Northumbria,  found  heroic  poetry  on  the 
rising  tide  of  development.  They  do  not  seem  by  their 
advent  to  have  checked  the  flow;  and,  indeed,  they  may 
even,  by  bringing  in  the  culture  of  an  older  civilization, 
have  caused  a  somewhat  inchoate  mass  of  popular  tradi- 
tional lays  to  crystallize  in  the  form  of  epics.  Be  that  as 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLTSH         61 

it  may,  the  Anglian  poets  were  at  first  so  little  influenced 
by  their  change  of  faith,  which  was  in  the  beginning 
national  rather  than  individual,  that,  when  they  sang  of 
their  old  heroes,  they  did  so  with  all  the  fervor  of  unbroken 
tradition.  They  recognized  God  as  the  ruler  of  the  world; 
but  they  could  not  escape  the  thought  of  Wyrd,  mys- 
terious and  immutable,  who  in  utter  darkness  beyond  the 
reach  of  any  prayer  wove  the  destinies  of  men.  Those  of 
the  poets  who,  like  Caedmon,  chose  to  celebrate  the  deeds 
of  the  Christian  heroes  inevitably  treated  them  in  the 
manner  to  which  they  were  accustomed.  We  have  lost 
a  priceless  boon  in  the  disappearance  of  Caedmon 's  own 
works,  save  for  nine  lines  preserved  by  Bede;  but  we  can 
see  from  the  biblical  paraphrases  of  the  late  seventh  or 
early  eighth  century,  such  as  Exodus,  that  the  change 
from  pagan  to  Christian  themes  meant  to  the  poets  a 
difference  of  subject  only,  not  of  spirit.  To  them  the 
proper  end  of  narrative  poetry  was  to  display  the  prowess 
of  some  hero,  divine  or  mortal,  in  contest,  achievement, 
and  defeat.  They  idealized  courage,  boldness,  force  of 
will,  and  self-restraint.  They  loved  the  flash  of  weapons, 
the  rude  pleasures  of  the  feast,  the  tension  of  effort  in  any 
form;  but  they  loved  not  less  the  thought  of  cloud-hung 
seas  and  battle-fields  strewn  with  corpses. 

In  a  spirit  like  this  the  Anglian  poets  came  to  write 
the  earliest  lists  <»f  saints  that  English  literature  pos- 
sesses. These  poetical  legends  are  few  in  number  and  un- 
equal in  merit,  but  they  arc  alike  in  selection  of  material 
as  well  as  in  manner  of  utterance.    They  are,  indeed, 


62  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

episodes  from  the  lives  of  saints,  broadly  sketched  and 
yet  highly  adorned,  rather  than  complete  legends.  They 
are  unified  by  the  singleness  of  aim  that  animated  their 
authors:  the  desire  to  present  a  stirring  picture  of  the 
triumphs  of  some  great  soul  in  contest  with  the  forces  of 
sin.  If  they  can  stimulate  the  imagination  to  grasp  the 
meaning  of  the  hero's  life  and  can  awaken  a  passion  for 
the  warfare  of  the  spirit  instead  of  the  sword,  they  have 
accomplished  their  end.  For  the  details  of  a  saint's  earthly 
life  they  care  little,  preferring  to  expand  the  bare  outline 
with  heightened  description,  with  stern  admonition,  and 
with  lyrical  appeal.  Thus  they  focus  attention  on  the 
great  moments  of  the  saint's  history,  which  they  weld  by 
fervor  of  thought  and  speech  into  poetic  unity. 

The  making  of  these  epic  legends  centres  in  the 
name  of  the  poet  Cynewulf .  Although  he  is  really  little 
more  than  a  name  to  us,  as  far  as  any  knowledge  of  his 
life  is  concerned,  the  fact  that  he  is  the  only  poet  of  the 
period  whose  personality  is  even  so  far  revealed  gives  him 
a  peculiar  place.  By  contrast  with  the  anonymity  of 
other  writers,  he  seems  very  close  to  us  and  makes  us  feel 
that  we  know  more  about  him  than  is  actually  the  case. 
Probably  this  is  the  reason  why  modern  scholarship  has 
woven  a  little  biographical  legend  about  his  name:  a 
fabric  of  conjecture  and  ill-based  inference.  The  truth  of 
the  matter  is  that  we  know  him  only  as  an  Anglian 
author  who  signed  four  poems  by  curious  acrostics  in 
runic  characters,  which  he  worked  into  the  body  of  the 
verse.    Twice  he  spelled  his  name  Cynwulf,  and  twice 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  LN  OLD  ENGLISH        63 

Cynewulf,  the  latter  being  the  form  now  universally 
adopted  to  describe  him.  In  the  eighth  century  he  could 
use  either  style  with  perfect  propriety,  and  he  may  well 
have  been  as  indifferent  to  the  particular  form  as  was 
Shakespeare.  Probably  we  shall  never  be  able  to  identify 
him  quite  certainly  with  any  person  about  whom  we  have 
knowledge  in  other  ways.  Of  the  various  men  suggested 
in  this  connection,  however,  a  Cynewulf  who  was  Bishop 
of  Lindisfarne  from  740  to  780  and  who  died  in  783  is 
most  likely  to  have  been  the  poet.  The  period  of  his  life, 
his  place  of  residence,  and  the  record  of  his  career,  as  far 
as  our  meagre  information  goes,  are  not  inconsistent  with 
the  theory. 

Of  Cynewulf,  the  poet,  nothing  is  known,  however, 
beyond  what  can  be  gleaned  from  his  signed  poems. 
That  he  was  an  Anglian  and  in  all  probability  a  North- 
umbrian, the  form  of  his  speech  gives  assurance.  He 
wrote  in  the  second  half  of  the  eighth  century,  as  we 
know  by  the  same  means.  He  was  learned,  for  he  showed 
an  expert's  knowledge  of  theological  dogma  and  such  a 
familiarity  with  books  as  must  have  been  unusual  in 
his  day.  By  the  same  token  he  is  likely  to  have  been 
an  ecclesiastic,  whether  monk,  secular  priest,  or  simple 
clerk.  The  use  that  he  made  of  his  Latin  sources  might 
indicate  thai  he  was  a  member  of  some  conventual  estab- 
lishment, where  a  considerable  library  would  be  at  his 
command;  but,  as  b  bishop  or  other  dignitary,  1kv  would 
doubtless  have  had  equally  ready  access  t<>  works  of 

piety  and  erudition.    Taking  into  account  the  subjective 


64  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

character  of  his  poetic  style  —  that  in  the  Christ  at  least 
he  dealt  with  high  themes  in  a  richly  individual  manner  — 
it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  he  told  us  so  little  about 
himself.  Had  he  been  indifferent  to  literary  reputation,  he 
would  never  have  signed  his  poems  as  he  did.  He  certainly 
did  not  seek  anonymity,  for  he  said,  in  introducing  one  of 
the  runic  passages :  1  — 

He  may  find  in  this  place,  the  fine  of  perception. 
The  man  delighting  in  the  music  of  songs, 
Who  made  this  poem. 

Yet  his  subjectivity  does  not  imply  much  self-revela- 
tion. The  only  passage  in  which  anything  like  autobi- 
ographical statement  is  introduced  just  precedes  his  sig- 
nature in  Elene.  There  he  states  expressly  that  he  was  an 
old  man  when  he  wrote  the  poem,  and  he  hints  at  some 
spiritual  experience  that  made  it  possible  for  him  to  un- 
derstand and  to  describe  the  miracle  of  the  cross.  The 
lines  following,  in  which  the  runes  are  imbedded,  have 
been  taken  to  imply  that  in  young  manhood  he  was  the 
retainer  of  some  lord  and  knew  the  transitory  pleasures 
of  the  world  from  actual  experience;  but  it  has  been 
shown  recently  by  Professor  C.  F.  Brown  that  these  lines 
refer  rather  to  the  life  of  man  before  the  revelation  of 
Christ  and  contain  no  allusions  to  the  poet's  own  career. 
Thus  we  are  left  without  knowledge  as  to  the  outward 
events  of  his  life,  and  have  to  be  content  with  the  inti- 
mations of  character  afforded  by  his  poems. 
1  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles,  vv.  96  ff. 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        65 

Of  the  four  poems  that  Cynewulf  signed,  three  only 
fall  within  the  scope  of  this  book,  for  the  Christ,1  his 
masterpiece,  is  a  rhapsodical  epic  rather  than  an  epic 
legend.  Juliana,  Elene,  and  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles, 
though  of  varying  literary  excellence,  fairly  represent  not 
only  his  genius  but  the  English  legendary  type  at  this 
period.  Of  the  order  in  which  they  were  composed  we 
know  nothing,  save  that  the  poet  regarded  himself  as 
old  at  the  time  when  he  wrote  the  epilogue  of  Elene. 
On  grounds  of  poetic  merit,  however,  Juliana  is  generally 
regarded  as  earlier  in  date  than  Cynewulf's  other  works. 
Certainly  it  is  cruder  and  less  successful  as  a  narrative 
poem  than  Elene,  and  may  with  propriety  be  first  con- 
sidered in  a  discussion  of  the  legendary  type  which  it 
represents. 

The  great  importance  of  Juliana  resides,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  the  extent  of  its  departure  from  the  method  and 
manner  of  Latin  legends.  Although  the  particular  form 
of  the  Acta  S.  Juliance  from  which  Cynewulf  drew  his 
material  has  unfortunately  not  yet  been  discovered,  it  is 
dear  that  he  must  have  treated  rather  boldly  whatever 
source  he  may  have  used.  The  story  of  St.  Juliana  does 
not  differ  very  much  in  kind  or  in  content  from  the  leg- 
cud-,  of  many  other  virgins  who  suffered  torments  and 
deatli  for  the  faith. 

1    I  refer  to  Chri.it  as  a  single  poem  advisedly,  though  doubtfl  have 

been  railed  m  to  whether  Cynewulf  wrote  more  than  the  second  <>f 
the  three  parti  into  which  it  is  divided.  His  signature  is  found  at  the 
end  of  Tart  n. 


-*• 


66  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Though  she  wished  to  live  a  maiden,  Juliana  was  be- 
trothed to  Eleusius,  whom  she  refused  to  marry  until  he 
should  obtain  the  office  of  prefect,  later  adding  the  con- 
dition that  he  become  a  Christian.  After  announcing  her 
resolution  to  her  father,  she  was  delivered  over  to  her 
lover,  who  tried  by  blandishments,  tortures,  and  im- 
prisonment to  shake  her  determination.  In  prison  she 
seized  a  devil,  who  had  come  to  tempt  her,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  disclose  the  secrets  of  his  master  Beelzebub, 
till  he  begged  for  mercy.  When  she  was  again  brought 
from  prison  to  the  place  of  judgment,  she  dragged  the 
demon  with  her  and  humiliated  him  before  the  people. 
Again  she  was  tortured  —  torn  on  a  wheel,  placed  on  a 
flaming  pyre,  and  cast  into  a  boiling  cauldron;  but  by 
her  prayers  she  escaped  all  these  torments  without  harm. 
The  devil  reappeared,  but  took  flight  when  she  gazed  at 
him.  With  prayers  and  admonitions  she  then  submitted 
to  the  sword,  while  her  lover  and  judge  was  left  to  ulti- 
mate destruction  by  shipwreck. 

Destitute  of  historical  verisimilitude  and  the  interest 
of  romantic  adventure,  this  Latin  story  is  characteristic 
of  the  baser  development  of  legends.  There  was  oppor- 
tunity for  psychological  characterization,  but  the  op- 
portunity was  neglected.  In  weak  imitation  of  the  genu- 
ine passions,  though  it  is  clearly  a  mosaic  of  other  lives, 
this  is  a  dry,  hard  record  of  events,  a  tale  of  distorted 
ideals  and  extravagant  punishments.  The  only  graces  of 
which  it  can  boast  are  the  logic  of  events,  the  underlying 
spirit  of  self-immolation  which  from  one  point  of  view 


THE  EPIC   LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         C7 

makes  all  martyrdoms  beautiful,  and  the  brave  accept- 
ance of  struggle,  which  is  responsible  for  the  single  touch 
of  imagination  in  the  whole  —  the  saint's  combat  with 
theJiend.  Even  these  good  qualities  are  not  so  well  de- 
veloped as  to  raise  the  legend  out  of  mediocrity.  With 
such  poor  material  did  Cynewulf  choose  to  work,  and 
quite  probably  he  had  no  suspicion  that  the  story  was 
ill  fitted  to  be  the  subject  of  great  poetry. 

The  instinct  of  the  true  creative  artist,  however,  led 
him  to  seize  upon  the  elements  that  were  capable  of  stim- 
ulating the  imagination.  These  he  elaborated  at  the  ex- 
pense of  straightforward  narrative,  elevated  and  magni- 
fied them,  and  transformed  a  rather  commonplace  talc 
into  a  brief  and  crude,  but  vigorous,  epic  legend.  To 
this  end  he  expanded  the  opening  scenes,  devoting  nearly 
a  third  of  his  poem  to  the  record  of  Juliana's  efforts  to 
avoid  marriage  with  Eleusius,  and  to  her  colloquies  both 
with  him  and  with  her  father.  The  saint's  contest  with 
the  devil  in  prison,  which  was  precisely  the  one  episode 
suitable  for  such  treatment,  he  enlarged  still  more.  From 
being  somewhat  less  than  a  third  of  the  Latin  source,  as 
i>  evidenl  from  a  comparison  of  the  extant  versions,  it 
was  made  to  occupy  nearly  one  half  of  Cynewulf s  nar- 
rative.   Nor  was  it  merely  expanded  in  bulk:  it  became 

the  centra]  feature  of  the  poem  in  inteivst  as  well  as 
extent.  As  the  saint  compelled  tin-  fiend  to  reveal  the 
secrete  of  hifl  world-old  contest  with  men,  as  lie  dilated 
on  liis  terror  of  returning  empty-handed  to  the  "king  of 
the  dwellen  in    Hell"  and  yet    begged  to  be  set    tree  from 


I 


68  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  bonds  under  which  her  virginal  purity  placed  him, 
the  struggle  grew  in  dignity  because  it  was  made  typical 
of  the  age-long  combat  with  sin.  Juliana,  from  being  a 
rather  conventional  figure,  became  a  heroine  of  epic 
dimensions,  rejoicing  like  some  barbarian  goddess  in  the 
discomfiture  of  her  foe;  strong  to  do  battle  and  triumphant 
in  victory. 

In  thus  changing  the  emphasis  of  the  story,  Cynewulf 
gave  it  real  dignity  and  power.  The  tortures  that  preceded 
the  saint's  death  he  recounted  briefly;  to  her  farewell  he 
gave  full  space,  as  befitted  the  end  of  an  epic  heroine;  and 
in  the  simple  epilogue,  into  which  he  wove  his  name, 
he  voiced  his  longing  for  her  help  on  that  day  when  his 
soul  should  take  its  mysterious  journey  to  the  court  of 
the  Lord  of  the  Heavens.  From  start  to  finish  he  so 
moulded  his  unpromising  materials  as  to  give  them  vigor 
and  life.  A  dull  poem  this  has  been  called  by  the  his- 
torians of  our  oldest  literature,  and  even  the  latest  editor 
of  it  seems  afraid  of  expressing  his  admiration.  He  com- 
plains that  the  struggle  with  the  devil  is  not  presented 
with  the  vivid  homeliness  of  the  same  scene  in  the  Old 
French  Vie  de  sainte  Juliane  or  of  the  similar  contest  in 
Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress.  This  is  to  misunderstand 
the  meaning  of  the  poem  as  completely  as  did  the  usually 
clear-sighted  Ten  Brink  when  he  objected  that  Cynewulf 
made  no  effort  to  place  "all  the  essential  moments  of  the 
action  in  clear  relationship  "  to  one  another.  These  things 
the  poet  did  not  do,  certainly,  and  for  the  sufficient  reason 
that  he  was  writing  neither  a  spiritualized  fabliau  nor  a 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         69 

straightforward  tale.  He  was  attempting  to  compose,  not 
entirely  without  success,  an  epic  legend.  Read  in  the 
light  of  its  real  purpose,  Juliana  will  seem  to  no  critic,  I 
believe,  tedious  or  ineffectual.  To  ask  of  it  anything  but 
what  we  know  as  epic  qualities  is  like  seeking  romantic 
emotion  in  the  Essay  on  Man  or  metaphysics  in  The 
Eve  of  St.  Agnes. 

Faults  the  poem  does  have,  even  when  judged  accord- 
ing to  its  kind.  There  is  a  stiffness  of  phrase  that  be- 
tokens mechanical  effort,  a  fumbling  uncertainty  of  touch 
now  and  again  that  seems  to  reveal  a  poet  not  yet  com- 
pletely the  master  of  his  medium.  On  account  of  such 
weaknesses  of  style  and  of  the  evident  inferiority  of  its 
material,  Juliana  must  take  a  lower  place  than  Elene; 
but  it  should  be  regarded  as  no  mean  achievement  in 
heroic  verse.  Not  only  does  Cynewulf  boldly  change  the 
original  story,  wherever  a  better  poetic  effect  is  obtained 
by  so  doing,  and  give  life  and  color  to  a  conventional  piece 
of  portraiture,  but,  without  sacrifice  of  dignity,  he  infuses 
human  interest  into  the  characters  and  lights  up  his  nar- 
rative  by  references  to  local  conditions.  So  the  saint's 
father  and  lover  lean  their  spears  together  when  they 
meet  for  a  conference;  the  devil  tells  how  he  stirs  up 
gusty  quarrels  among  men  while  they  drink  in  the  wine- 
hall;  and  .Juliana  is  led  for  execution  to  a  place  outside 
tin-  town  "near  the  land's  border."  Nicodemia,  in  short, 
is  represented  as  if  it  were  a  Northumbrian  settlement, 
inhabited  by  Teutonic  heroes  in  whom  Christianity  had 

not   stifled   racial  custom  and  instinct.    The  epithets  for 


/ 


TO  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

men  and  things,  which  are  the  characteristic  trappings 
of  Old  English  poetry  of  whatever  sort,  gleam  from  the 
rugged  verse  as  they  do  in  Beowulf.  Though  occasionally 
inept,  they  more  often  give  the  story  a  power  and  a  ten- 
derness that  the  Latin  does  not  even  suggest.  What  could 
be  happier  than  the  choice  of  the  adjective  "sun-bright" 
to  distinguish  the  heroic  woman  who,  to  the  poet's  imagi- 
nation, represented  the  triumph  of  good  over  the  darkness 
of  the  world?  Moreover,  in  the  fiend's  story  of  his  wicked 
deeds,  which  he  could  not  fully  recount  in  the  space  of 
"a  summer-long  day,"  there  is  a  lurking  humor  that 
lightens  the  severity  of  the  tale  without  plunging  it  into 
buffoonery. 

The  undoubted  superiority  of  the  other  complete  leg- 
end which  is  certainly  by  Cynewulf,  the  Elene,  rests 
fully  as  much  on  choice  of  subject  as  on  treatment.  The 
story  of  St.  Helena's  discovery  of  the  true  cross,  which 
took  form  before  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  appeals 
to  the  romantic  imagination  as  few  martyrdoms  have  the 
power  to  do.  Not  only  is  there  in  it  the  stir  of  battles  and 
of  adventurous  journeyings,  but  there  is  emphasized  that 
mysterious  power  which  brought  East  and  West  together 
in  a  common  worship.  As  Constantine  the  Great  came 
to  be  the  symbol  of  a  Roman  Empire  purified  by  Chris- 
tianity, and  so  remained  to  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
his  connection  with  a  symbol  greater  than  himself  could 
not  fail  to  stir  the  religious  feeling  of  all  true  believers. 
To  Cynewulf,  a  poet  on  the  boundaries  of  God's  empire, 
the  touch  of  mysticism  and  the  full-blooded  romance  in 


TIIE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        71 

the  story  were  probably  alike  attractive.  The  material 
was  well  suited  to  his  ends. 

As  is  the  case  with  Juliana,  we  do  not  know  the  precise 
form  in  which  Cynewulf  found  the  legend.  A  recent  com- 
parison of  his  text  with  some  twenty  other  versions,  made 
by  Professor  Holthausen,  showed  that  the  Latin  source 
must  have  been  more  elaborate  than  any  copy  now  ex- 
tant; and  the  investigations  of  Professor  C.  F.  Brown, 
still  more  lately,  have  made  it  probable  that  the  poet  had 
before  him  a  Latin  text  written  in  Ireland  or  by  an  Irish 
scribe.  When  the  close  relationship  between  the  North- 
umbrian and  Irish  churches  is  remembered,  this  need 
occasion  no  surprise;  nor  does  it  lessen  the  poetic  achieve- 
ment of  Cynewulf  to  show  that  he  worked  with  a  version 
somewhat  less  bald  than  the  summary  account  of  the 
Acta  Sanctorum.  It  was  not  necessary  in  the  case  of  this 
legend  to  alter  the  fabric  or  to  change  the  emphasis  in 
order  to  glorify  and  elevate  the  story. 

The  Emperor  Constantino,  while  confronting  the  bar- 
barians on  the  Danube  with  his  army,  had  a  vision  of  the 
CTi  iss  shining  in  the  sky,  inscribed  with  the  words:  "  In  hoc 
signo  vinces."  Thereupon  he  had  made  a  likeness  of  the 
cross,  which  was  carried  into  battle  before  him.  After  he 
had  defeated  the  barbarians  and  had  returned  to  Rome, 
he  learned  the  meaning  of  the  cross  and  was  baptized. 
When  he  found  that  Christ  had  Buffered  in  Jerusalem, 
In-  Miit  his  mother  Helena  thither  to  seek  the  wood  of  the 
cn^,.  With  it  great,  company  the  lady  journeyed  to  the 
Holy  Land,  called  together  the  leaders  of  the  Jews,  and 


72  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

bade  them  select  men  of  the  law  to  answer  her  questions. 
To  the  thousand  wise  doctors  who  came  to  her  she  re- 
hearsed the  prophecies  concerning  the  Messiah,  and  com- 
manded that  they  choose  the  most  learned  of  their  num- 
ber to  answer  her.  The  five  hundred  then  brought  before 
her  she  dismissed  bewildered,  taunting  them  with  their 
ignorance  and  folly.  While  they  were  taking  counsel  as 
to  the  meaning  of  her  words,  Judas  told  them  that  she 
was  seeking  the  wood  on  which  their  fathers  had  sus- 
pended Christ.  From  his  father  Simon,  and  ultimately 
from  his  grandfather  Zaccheus,  the  story  of  the  crucifixion 
and  subsequent  events  had  come  to  him.  After  telling 
the  story,  he  was  brought  into  the  Queen's  presence  and 
questioned  by  her  privately.  He  was  unable  to  tell  her 
precisely  the  position  of  Calvary  and  was  imprisoned  for 
seven  days,  when  he  promised  to  discover  the  place.  By 
means  of  prayer  he  miraculously  found  this  and  dug  up 
three  crosses,  which  he  took  to  Helena.  When  she  had 
made  sure,  by  its  healing  properties,  that  one  of  these  was 
the  true  cross,  the  Empress  adorned  it  richly,  built  for  it 
a  church  on  Calvary,  and  had  Judas  made  bishop  under 
the  name  Cyriacus.  She  then  sought  the  nails  of  the 
cross,  which  were  revealed  at  the  bishop's  prayer,  shining 
in  the  earth.  These  she  sent  to  Constantine,  to  deck  the 
bridle  of  his  horse,  while  she  herself  lingered  in  Jerusalem 
to  establish  a  day  in  commemoration  of  the  discovery  of 
the  cross. 

This  tale,  which  he  found  an  inspiration  and  a  glory, 
Cynewulf  treated  with  the  mixture  of  objective  realism 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         73 

and  subjective  sympathy  that  marked  his  poetic  style  at 
its  best.  Though  he  had  no  need  of  making  extensive 
changes  in  order  to  give  the  story  epic  value,  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  hampered  by  too  close  adherence  to 
the  Latin  source.  He  caught  the  inspiration  of  the  nar- 
rative and  transfused  it  according  to  his  own  fashion, 
obviously  keeping  the  order  and  even  the  words  of  his 
original  wherever  they  were  fitting,  and  freely  expanding 
passages  that  demanded  greater  breadth.  Thus  in  the 
description  at  the  beginning  of  the  poem  he  pictures 
with  manifest  delight  the  gathering  of  the  Huns  and 
the  Goths,  the  Franks  and  the  Hugs,  against  the  Roman 
power. 

Hold  men  wore  they,  eager  for  battle, 

Prepared  for  the  contest;  their  woven  coats 

And  spears  were  shining;  with  shouts  and  the  crashing 

Of  shields  they  uplifted  the  standard  of  battle. 

When  the  heroes  together  had  gathered  by  kinsfolk, 

Forth  fared  the  host.    In  the  forest  the  wolf 

Howled  his  war-cry  and  hid  not  the  omen; 

The  eagle,  wet-winged,  on  the  enemy's  track 

Lifted  his  shout.   Straightway  there  hastened 

From  camp  unto  camp  the  greatest  of  armies, 

Hosts  to  the  battle. 

Through  the  entire  passage,  descriptive  of  the  battle  and 
of  Constautine'a  vision,  there  runs  a  strain  of  martial 
vigor  for  which  the  poet  himself  was  clearly  responsible. 
Illustrative  of  the  same  tendency  to  dwell  with  epic 
concreteness  on  passages  that  permitted  such  treatment 
is  the  voyage  of  Helena  to  Palestine.    Probably  the  sug- 


74  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

gestion  for  a  description  of  the  journey  was  furnished  by 
Cynewulf's  immediate  source,  though  none  of  the  extant 
Latin  versions  mentions  it;  but  the  realization  of  it  could 
have  proceeded  from  no  one  less  gifted  with  the  power  of 
seeing  and  feeling  than  was  the  Northumbrian  poet. 

Then  over  the  ocean  they  drove,  the  ships  high-built, 

And  the  prows  were  foamy;  they  felt  the  shock, 

The  beat  on  the  hull  of  the  billows'  might; 

The  sea  resounded.   Since  or  before  that 

Learned  I  never  of  a  lady's  leading 

O  'er  the  streams  of  the  deep,  the  street  of  the  sea, 

A  fairer  power.   Plunged  through  the  water 

With  straining  sails  the  hastening  sea-wood, 

The  leaping  steed  that  strode  through  the  waves. 

Happy  the  warriors,  for  their  hearts  were  proud; 

The  queen  rejoiced  that  the  journey  was  toward. 

Translation  cannot  hope  to  preserve  the  brilliant  move- 
ment of  passages  like  this,  which  is  far  removed  from  the 
thumping  step  of  much  alliterative  verse;  it  cannot  give 
an  adequate  notion  of  the  color  and  variety  of  the  poem, 
the  love  for  the  world  of  sight  and  sound  that  is  inter- 
woven with  imaginings  that  aspire  to  the  eternal;  and 
it  can  but  imperfectly  represent  the  clear  visualization 
characteristic  of  the  poem. 

Yet  through  dwelling  over-long  on  Cynewulf's  more 
striking  expansions  I  must  not  convey  the  impression  that 
the  Elene  is  a  work  of  shreds  and  patches,  wherein  pro- 
portion is  sacrificed  to  episodic  glitter.  Wherever  in- 
crease of  detail  would  have  impeded  the  swift  current  of 
the  narrative,  there  is  no  attempt  to  do  more  with  the 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        75 

material  than  to  express  it  in  the  style  proper  to  the 
time:  to  convey  by  striking  metaphor  and  repeated  epi- 
thet the  dignity  inherent  in  the  story.  Even  the  most 
expanded  passages,  the  reader  will  note,  are  not  pictures 
of  scenes  or  of  men  in  repose,  but  true  epic  descriptions 
with  the  stir  of  action,  past  and  present,  running  through 
them.  The  conversations  also,  which  make  up  towards 
half  of  the  poem,  do  not  hinder  the  progress  of  the  tale, 
but  substantially  contribute  to  the  effect  by  bringing 
scenes  into  clear  focus  or  by  relating  deeds  of  the  past 
that  could  not  otherwise  be  absorbed  into  the  body  of  the 
work.  The  longest  single  speech,  that  of  Judas  before  the 
Hebrew  council,  well  illustrates  the  success  of  the  pro- 
cedure. From  the  point  of  view  of  a  patriot  who  is  con- 
scious at  once  of  the  errors  and  the  doom  of  his  race, 
he  tells  the  story  of  the  crucifixion  and  its  sequel,  which 
for  the  sake  of  completeness  must  somewhere  be  included. 
Whatever  suggestions  may  have  come  to  Cynewulf  from 
his  original  —  and  even  the  bald  version  of  the  Ada 
Sanctorum  reports  the  conversation  with  considerable  ef- 
fectiveness —  he  must  be  given  the  credit  of  informing 
both  this  and  other  speeches  with  life  and  poetic  feeling. 
Indeed,  in  his  version  not  only  docs  the  queenly  dignity 
of  St.  Helena  shine  through  lier  words,  but  Judas  becomes 
a  truly  sympathetic  figure,  torn  by  conflicting  emotions, 
the  defender  of  a  lost  and  unrighteous  cause  who  gener- 
ously welcomes  a  better  day. 

In   such  adaptation  of  his  material  Cynewulf  reveals, 
I  submit,  no  mean  poetic  ability.   In  the  larger  matters  of 


76  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

construction  as  well  as  in  the  power  and  beauty  of  his 
phrasing  he  shows  a  mastery  that  cannot  be  regarded  as 
wholly  due  to  chance.  He  was  artist  as  well  as  inspired 
singer.  To  be  sure,  he  sometimes  fell  into  absurdities, 
even  in  the  Elene,  as  when  he  used  the  conventional  word 
sige-beam  ("tree  of  victory")  to  describe  the  crosses  on 
which  the  two  thieves  were  hanged;  and  he  failed  to 
remove  Helena's  reference  to  the  Trojan  War  as  a  matter 
of  common  knowledge  among  the  Jews,  which  offends 
modern  taste.  Moreover,  he  did  not  always  make  his 
meaning  clear.  But  these  are  faults  to  be  pardoned  in  his 
case  as  similar  faults  are  forgiven  many  another  poet  of 
honorable  name  in  our  literature.  The  great  accomplish- 
ment with  which  he  and  his  school  are  to  be  credited  is 
that  they  gave  a  noble  type  of  narrative  fit  embodiment 
in  poetry. 

The  third  of  Cynewulf 's  signed  contributions  to  legen- 
dary literature,  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles,  need  not  long 
detain  us.  Except  that  it  chances  to  be  preserved  in  the 
so-called  Vercelli  Book  x  directly  after  Andreas,  and  that 
it  bears  the  name  of  Cynewulf,  it  would  scarcely  have 
attracted  much  attention  as  a  work  of  literature  or  as  a 
document  in  the  history  of  culture.  Because  of  these  con- 
nections, however,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  much  debate. 
The  runic  inscription,  long  overlooked,  was  discovered  by 
Professor  Napier  in  1888,  which  settled  the  authorship  of 

1  One  of  the  four  manuscripts  in  which  most  of  the  extant  Old  Eng- 
lish poetry  has  come  down  to  us.  It  is  preserved  in  the  cathedral  library 
of  Vercelli  in  northern  Italy. 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        77 

the  shorter  and  otherwise  less  important  poem;  but 
whether  the  inscription  was  intended  to  serve  also  as  an 
epilogue  to  the  Andreas  has  remained  a  question  to  which 
no  certain  answer  can  be  given.  It  is  safe,  however,  to 
regard  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles  as  an  independent  poem: 
the  English  representative  of  those  lists  of  the  Twelve, 
giving  brief  accounts  of  their  missions  and  deaths,  which 
were  circulated  during  and  after  the  fifth  century.  These 
epitomes  of  apostolic  history  served  the  same  purpose  in 
a  limited  field  as  did  the  menologies  for  saints  in  general: 
they  recalled  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  the  founders  of 
the  Christian  faith. 

In  one  particular  Cynewulf s  poem  differs  from  all 
other  surviving  examples  of  the  type.  It  gives  no  dates 
for  the  feast-days,  and  thus  could  not  have  served  the 
practical  purpose  of  a  calendar.  It  is  really  more  like  an 
elegy  than  a  menology,  depending  for  effect  upon  the  cu- 
mulative iteration  so  beloved  of  poets,  especially  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  JJbi  sunt  formula  had  its  great- 
est vogue.  Opening  with  a  statement  of  the  glory  won 
by  these  "thanes  of  the  Prince"  and  of  their  guidance 
by  lot  to  their  fields  of  labor,  the  poet  recites  their  fate 
individually  or  by  couples  in  from  three  to  thirteen  lines. 
By  means  of  the  device  just  mentioned  he  avoids  the 
danger  of  making  a  mere  catalogue  and  imparts  a  flavor 
of  romance  to  the  brief  summary.  Somewhat  as  the  poet 
of  Widrith  suggests  far-oil'  lands  and  <i.  vs  of  old,  but  yath 
more  art,  Cynewulf  in  his  series  of  phrasi  s  stirs  the  recol- 
lection to  thoughts  of  the  apostolic  wanderers.    In  the 


78  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

suspiciously  ample  and  duplicated  epilogue,  which  rep- 
resents almost  one  third  of  the  whole,  he  begs  the  reader 
to  pray  for  his  welfare  on  that  day  when  he  must  seek, 
like  every  man,  his  unknown  habitation;  and  he  exhorts 
us  to  call  upon  the  God  of  ever-during  power  that  He 
may  give  us  timeless  recompense.  Whether  or  not  he 
should  be  literally  interpreted  when  he  says  that  he  col- 
lected his  material  from  afar,  he  clearly  made  the  same 
imaginative  use  of  it  as  in  his  longer  and  more  important 
poems.  Though  his  immediate  source  is  unknown  to  us, 
we  may  be  sure  from  the  forms  of  the  proper  names  which 
he  used  that  he  had  read  some  Latin  account  of  the  apos- 
tles. Professor  Krapp,  in  the  most  recent  edition  of  the 
poem,  shows  that  he  probably  had  before  him  the  list  or 
lists  from  which  Bede  prepared  his  Martyrologium.  The 
Fates  of  the  Apostles  possesses  no  extraordinary  literary 
merit,  but  it  is  not  unworthy  to  bear  Cynewulf's  name; 
and  it  has  extrinsic  interest  as  showing  the  devotional 
attachments  of  Anglia  in  the  eighth  century. 

At  one  time  or  another,  and  by  one  scholar  or  another, 
so  much  anonymous  Old  English  poetry  has  been  ascribed 
to  Cynewulf  that  one  is  driven  to  skepticism  as  to  the 
value  of  argument  from  internal  evidence.  Yet  the  exami- 
nation of  such  matters  as  structure,  diction,  syntax,  and 
metre  has  had  certain  useful  results.  Even  though  it  has 
not  established  beyond  question  whether  Cynewulf  wrote 
this  poem  and  thr  c,  it  has  at  least  given  increased  knowl- 
edge of  his  manner,  and  emphasized  the  stylistic  peculiar- 
ities of  poems  belonging  to  his  school.   Of  the  unsigned 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGL 

works  that  have  been  attributed  to  him,  only  t 
within  the  scope  of  the  epic  legend:  Guthlac  and  An 

(Guthlac,  as  has  long  been  recognized,  really  consis,. 
two^poems,  each  provided  with  an  introduction  and 
conclusion,  each  a  unit.  The  first,  which  is  now  usual! 
termed  Guthlac  the  Hermit  (vv.  1-790),  describes  the  entire 
life  of  the  saint:  how  he  turned  from  the  evil  courses  of 
his  youth,  sought  refuge  in  the  solitudes,  endured  temp- 
tations, and  died.  The  second,  or  Guthlac  s  Death  (w. 
791-1353),  after  reviewing  briefly  the  fame  and  tempta- 
tions of  the  hermit,  narrates  with  great  fulness  of  detail 
the  circumstances  attending  his  end.  These  two  poems 
are  the  only  examples  preserved  (however  many  may 
once  have  existed)  of  the  epic  legend  with  a  native  saint 
as  hero.  Somewhat  curiously,  considering  the  probable 
Northumbrian  origin  of  both  poems,  Guthlac  himself  was 
a  Mercian.  From  the  vita  by  Felix,  which  is  the  source  of 
all  our  knowledge  about  the  saint,  it  appears  that  he  came 
of  noble  stock,  was  a  warrior  in  youth,  became  a  monk 
at  ReptOD  in  Derbyshire,  and  two  years  later  sought  a 
retreat  in  the  wilderness.  He  found  refuge  first  near 
Grantchester  in  Cambridgeshire  and  subsequently  at 
Crowland,  an  island  in  the  Fens  of  Lincolnshire,  where 
he  lived  a  hermit  till  his  death  in  714,  overcoming  the 
temptations  of  the  devil  and  doing  many  wonders.  Felix, 
who  seems  from  the  dedication  of  his  book  to  have  been 
an  Easl  Anglian  monk,  stated  that  he  derived  his  knowl- 
edge of  Guthlac  from  Wilfrid,  ( !issa,  and  Beocel,  who  had 

knOWIl  the  saint.    Though  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt 


SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

3  gave  the  main  facts  of  the  life  with  substantial 

.•acy,  it  is  clear  that  he  formed  his  work  and  adorned 

^cording  to  accepted  models.  Thus  he  borrowed  from 

ede's  Vita  S.  Cuthberti  both  incidents  and  descriptive 
passages;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  entire  text  is  a 
mosaic,  of  which  Felix  should  be  regarded  as  compiler 
rather  than  author. 

All  this  has  its  bearing  on  the  two  poems  in  the  vernac- 
ular, which  I  have  mentioned.  Both  of  them,  I  believe, 
were  based  on  the  Latin  vita.  Guthlac  the  Hermit  has  of 
late  years  been  regarded  as  independent  of  Felix,  the  work 
of  some  one  who  garnered  from  oral  tradition  the  story 
of  the  saint's  career.  A  careful  comparison  of  the  poem 
with  the  Latin  text,  however,  convinces  me  that  the 
former  is  throughout  dependent  on  a  literary  source.1 
Not  only  does  it  contain  nothing,  save  part  of  the  pro- 
logue and  one  expository  passage,  for  which  a  parallel  is 
not  furnished  by  Felix,  but  in  phrase  it  frequently  recalls 
the  Latin.  Since  Felix,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not  wholly 
without  literary  forbears,  it  is  manifestly  impossible  that 
the  poet  of  Guthlac  the  Hermit  could  have  taken  all  the 
incidents  of  the  saint's  dealings  with  angels  and  fiends 
from  reports  of  his  personal  friends.  He  did  not  follow 
his  source  straight  on;  yet,  despite  his  references  to  the 

1  This  opinion  is  based  on  a  fresh  examination  of  the  documents, 
though  the  details  of  the  evidence  cannot  here  be  presented.  I  regret 
that  in  a  review  of  Forstmann's  Untersuchungen  zur  Guihlac-Legende, 
published  in  Englische  Studien,  xxxiv,  95  ff.,  I  too  hastily  adhered  to 
the  contrary  view. 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         81 

evidence  of  men  still  living,  he  showed  no  independent 
knowledge  —  only  the  poet's  power  of  moulding  and 
organization.  There  is  no  reason,  then,  why  we  should 
interpret  his  statements  that  Guthlac  "was  tempted  in 
times  that  men  remember"  and  that  "we  are  witnesses 
of  these  wonders"  in  quite  a  literal  sense.  The  poet  was 
but  recalling  the  evidence  produced  by  Felix,  just  as 
hagiographers  have  customarily  done  with  their  originals. 
Unfortunately,  this  dependence  on  a  literary  source 
leaves  the  date  of  Guthlac  the  Hermit,  which  has  been 
taken  as  a  certain  landmark  of  the  mid-eighth  century, 
altogether  doubtful.  Not  impossibly  the  poem  may  have 
been  written  by  a  contemporary  or  a  follower  of  Cyne- 
wulf. 

That  Cynewulf  himself  was  the  author  is  not  likely  to 
be  held  by  anyone,  I  think.  The  writer  had  not  the 
power  of  interpreting  a  situation  in  apt  and  telling 
phrases,  for  which  Cynewulf  was  so  remarkable.  In  the 
focussing  of  events  he  was  scarcely  inferior,  but  he  did 
not  marshal  them  with  the  same  clearness.  Though  he 
centred  the  reader's  interest,  as  did  Cynewulf,  in  Juliana, 
cm  the  spiritual  conflict  and  made  the  protagonist  an 
heroic  figure,  he  did  not  succeed  in  presenting  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  saint  with  that  combination  of  epic  vigor 
and  brilliantly  metaphorical  language  which  character- 
izes the  Elene.  At  his  best,  as  in  the  descriptions  of 
Guthlac's  hermitage  in  the  fens,  which  had  been  the 

home  of  demons,  or  in  the  narrative  of  th<'  saint's  vision 
of  hell  (w.  529   704),  which  forms  the  climax  of  the  work, 


82  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

he  had  moments  of  splendor;  but  he  depended  too  much 
on  reminiscent  formula  and  descended  too  frequently 
into  homiletic  explanation,  to  be  a  great  poet. 

With  Guihlacs  Death  the  case  is  different.  Except  for 
one  passage,  which  briefly  reviews  the  saint's  glorious 
career,  his  temptations,  his  care  of  the  birds,  and  his 
visitation  by  the  sick  of  body  or  soul,  the  entire  poem  is 
based  on  a  single  chapter  of  the  vita.  Phrase  after  phrase 
is  taken  up  in  order  and  expanded  quite  as  a  musical 
theme  is  developed  by  a  composer.  Since  young  Eve 
poured  out  the  bitter  drink  for  Adam,  death  has  ruled 
over  man.  So  to  Guthlac  in  the  waste  came  at  the  end 
of  his  days  disease  and  suffering.  To  his  servant,  who 
visited  him  each  day,  he  foretold  his  death  and  spoke 
words  of  comfort. 

My  son  beloved! 
Be  not  of  soul  too  sad !  I  am  ready  now, 
Eager  for  the  journey,  for  everlasting  joy, 
According  to  my  works  in  life  to  have  reward  in  Heaven, 
To  see  the  Lord  Triumphant,  my  son  so  dear! 

On  the  seventh  day  he  felt  the  near  approach  of  death 
"strong  and  terrible,"  and  he  commanded  his  disciple  to 
go  to  his  sister  after  his  departure  with  messages  of  love 
and  cheer.  At  the  man's  request  to  know  with  whom  he 
had  been  wont  to  talk  in  the  twilight  and  at  dawn,  he 
revealed  the  fact  that  he  had  entertained  each  day  an 
angelic  visitant,  who  had  given  him  consolation.  That 
day  and  all  the  night  the  holy  man  was  guarded  by  the 
servant,  until  at  sunrise  he  lifted  up  his  hands,  opened 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        83 

his  eyes,  and  released  his  glorious  soul.  The  servant, 
terrified  by  the  sound  of  angel  voices  and  the  light  that 
encompassed  the  dwelling,  mourning  for  his  lord,  took 
his  boat  and  sought  his  master's  sister. 

In  these  scenes,  which  offered  comparatively  little  op- 
portunity for  depicting  action,  the  poet  showed  a  command 
of  his  art  that  merits  unreserved  admiration.  He  had  to 
depend  upon  situation,  psychological  analysis  of  the  two 
characters,  and  description  of  aspects  of  nature  that  were 
in  harmony  with  both,  to  rouse  and  hold  the  interest  of 
his  hearers  or  listeners.  He  had  no  hosting  of  armies  or 
stormy  adventures  to  relate,  no  splendid  visions  of  heaven, 
earth,  or  hell:  only  the  simple  story  of  how  a  holy  man 
fell  sick,  conversed  with  his  servant  about  his  experiences 
in  the  solitude  and  his  expectation  of  heaven,  and  how 
the  faithful  retainer  fled  before  the  awful  wonders  that 
accompanied  his  death,  to  carry  the  tidings  to  the  world. 
All  this  the  poet  treated  with  a  directness  that  befitted 
the  theme,  making  no  attempt  to  deck  it  out  with  bor- 
rowed verbiage  or  to  romance  about  serious  things. 
Although  the  subject-matter  was  expanded  with  the 
utmost  freedom,  there  is  almost  nothing  superfluous 
throughout  the  poem.  The  impression  that  it  gives 
is  one  of  compactness.  Yet  this  plainness  is  not  due  to 
poverty  of  phrasing,  for  nowhere  docs  the  verse  sink  to 
bald  statement  of  fact.  It  is  straightforward,  but  touched 

with  the  fire  of  imagination;  and  it   rises,  when  there  is 

n<c<l,  to  the  heights  of  poetie  expression.   So  upon  the 

description  of  the  ineffable  glories  of  the  saint's  transit. 


84  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

to  Heaven,  of  the  music  and  perfume  that  filled  the  earth 
and  air,  and  of  the  servant's  flight,  there  is  lavished  such 
wealth  of  imagery  as  only  a  poet  who  loved  the  beauty 
of  the  visible  world  could  have  devised. 

This  was  the  poet's  art:  to  paint  in  subdued  colors 
against  which  the  richness  of  a  few  scenes  might  be  dis- 
played to  the  greater  advantage.  Yet  as  a  whole  the  poem 
is  not  sombre,  for  it  is  lighted  by  the  saint's  quiet  joy  in 
his  approaching  end.  He  is  not  regretful  even  for  his 
sister's  sake,  though  his  stifled  tenderness  towards  her 
comes  out  in  his  messages  of  farewell.  The  most  pleasing 
feature  of  the  poem  is  perhaps  the  relationship  that  is 
pictured  as  existing  between  the  dying  Guthlac  and  his 
disciple.  It  is  not  surpassed  in  beauty  by  the  closing 
scenes  of  Beowulf,  which  tell  of  the  devotion  of  Wiglaf  to 
his  lord,  hard-pressed,  mortally  wounded,  and  dead.  It 
preserves  in  noble  verse  one  of  the  most  exalted  ideals 
of  our  early  English  forefathers:  the  dependence  of  man 
upon  master  and  of  master  upon  man.  Nor  is  the  merit 
of  this  performance  to  be  attributed  to  the  Latin  of  the 
monk  Felix,  even  though  the  author  of  Guthlac' s  Death 
has  been  ignorantly  termed  a  "slavish"  translator.  One 
has  but  to  read  the  two  works  side  by  side  to  see  how  the 
poet  has  transmuted  the  base  metal  of  his  original. 
Indeed,  to  find  an  equally  sympathetic  expression  of 
man's  terror  in  the  presence  of  the  great  forces  of  nature 
as  is  shown  in  the  flight  of  the  servant  across  the  sea,  it 
is  necessary  to  go  to  Lear  or  The  Prelude.  Whether  or 
not  Cynewulf  wrote  the  poem  we  cannot  be  sure,  though 


THE  EriC  LEGEND  LN  OLD  ENGLISH        85 

no  one  has  shown  that  such  may  not  have  been  the  case. 
Certainly  he  had  equal  power  of  vivid  description,  a 
similar  richness  of  phrase,  and  the  same  constructive 
imagination,  in  dealing  with  his  materials.  Quite  pos- 
sibly, as  Wiilker  long  since  suggested,  the  lost  conclusion 
of  the  poem  may  have  contained  Cynewulf  s  signature. 
Even  more  celebrated  than  Guthlacs  Death,  and  quite 
as  significant  in  the  history  of  the  legendary  type,  is  the 
[Andreas,  an  Odyssey  of  the  Apostle  St.  Andrew.  Like 
the  Elene,  it  has  for  its  theme  a  romantic  story  well  suited 
t<>  epic  treatment;  and,  more  nearly  than  any  other  of 
the  poems  we  have  been  considering,  it  approaches  the 
native  heroic  manner  of  Beowulf.  It  tells  a  part  only  of 
the  cycle  of  legends  that  grew  up  about  the  personality 
of  the  apostle  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century,  representing  specifically  certain  chapters  of  the 
Greek  Acts  of  Andrew  and  Matthew  in  the  City  of  the 
Anthropophagi,  which  is  its  indirect  source.  That  it  was 
baaed  directly  on  a  Latin  version  of  the  Acts  has  been 
proved  with  sufficient  certainty,  though  only  fragments 
of  such  a  rendering  have  been  discovered.  With  its  wild 
adventures  and  extravagant  marvels,  which  are  as  pro- 
nounced in  the  Greek  original  as  in  the  Old  English  poem, 
it  perpetuated  the  older  stream  of  tradition  respecting 
Andrew:  an  apocryphal  history  that  was  gradually  re- 
vised  into  conventionality  by  the  writers  of  the  western 

Church.  Indeed,  the  Andreas  and  a  prose  version  found 
in  the  Blickling  Homilies  are  the  only  representatives  of 
the  early  form  of  the  legend  that  have  survived  in  the 


86  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

languages  of  western  Europe.  Among  the  English  the 
story  had  good  reason  for  popularity,  both  because  of  the 
natural  devotion  of  their  missionary,  St.  Augustine,  to 
St.  Andrew  as  patron  of  the  monastery  in  Rome  from 
which  he  was  taken  to  labor  in  the  northern  island,  and 
because  of  their  sympathy  with  the  romantic  voyages  of 
the  apostle. 

As  I  have  said,  of  all  the  examples  of  the  epic  legend 
that  we  possess,  Andreas  approximates  most  closely  in 
diction  and  poetic  adornment  the  native  heroic  poems. 
On  this  account  it  has  been  credited  with  a  degree  of 
literary  merit  somewhat  beyond  its  real  worth.  In  in- 
dividual passages  it  does  not  lack  dignity  and  beauty,  but 
the  narrative  is  not  fused  into  any  large  unity  of  design. 
/Though  it  glitters  with  barbaric  splendor  of  phrase  and 
rivals  the  best  old  Germanic  poetry,  pagan  or  Christian, 
in  bold  metaphor  and  imaginative  description,  it  fails  to 
subordinate  the  particular  scene  to  the  general  plan  as 
do  Juliana,  Elene,  or  Guthlac's  Death.  Could  the  poem 
be  regarded  as  primitive,  the  work  of  an  author  less 
sophisticated  than  the  Beowulf  poet  or  Cynewulf,  this 
lack  of  proportion  might  be  disregarded  for  the  sake  of 
the  untamed  vigor  that  not  infrequently  characterizes 
folk-song.  But  in  phraseology  Andreas  is  clearly  imita- 
tive, markedly  conventional  even  among  poems  in  which 
the  formula  is  used  without  hesitation  as  an  ordinary 
vehicle  of  thought.  Furthermore,  it  is  indebted  to  older 
poems,  particularly  to  Beowulf,  for  the  method  of  hand- 
ling its  plot.  Though  the  framework  was  taken  from  the 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         87 

Latin  Ads  of  Andrew  and  Matthew,  the  situations  were 
developed  in  such  a  way  as  to  ret-all  the  adventures  of 
tin-  heroic,  Beowulf:  a  chieftain  endangered,  the  sea- 
voyage  of  the  reseuer,  a  victorious  contest,  and  a  safe 
return  to  the  land  of  departure.  In  phrase  and  in  struc- 
ture, then,  Andreas  is  reminiscent,  in  phrase  not  unsuc- 
cessfully so,  but  in  structure  less  happily  dependent. 

After  a  brief  introduction  in  praise  of  the  apostles,  the 
adventures  of  Matthew  in  the  land  of  Mermedonia  are 
recounted.  Imprisoned  and  awaiting  the  pleasure  of  the 
man-eating  natives,  he  prayed  for  help  and  was  assured 
by  the  voice  of  the  King  of  Heaven  that  Andrew  would 
come  to  his  aid.  To  Andrew  in  Achaia  came  God's  voice, 
bidding  him  save  his  brother  and  informing  him  that  a 
ship  would  be  ready  at  dawn  to  convey  him.  At  the 
haven  he  found  the  vessel,  manned  by  the  Lord  Himself 
and  two  angels  in  the  disguise  of  sailors.  God  bargained 
with  him  for  passage-money  but  at  length  agreed  to 
carry  both  the  apostle  and  his  disciples,  as  thanes  of 
Christ,  scot-free.  Somewhat  more  than  a  third  of  the 
poem  is  occupied  with  this  naive  bargaining  and  the  sub- 
sequent tumultuous  voyage.  Once  arrived,  Andrew  took 
counsel  with  his  followers,  heard  their  dream  of  Paradise, 
received  instructions  from  the  Lord,  and  saved  Matthew 
—  who  thereupon  abruptly  disappears  from  the  story. 
Andrew  then    rescued   a  young  Mermedonian,  who  had 

been  appointed  by  lot  to  take  Matthew's  place  as  provi- 
sion for  feasting,  encountered  and  overcame  the  Devil  in 
debate,  and  was  imprisoned.  After  being  tortured  thrice, 


88  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  saint  was  miraculously  healed,  and,  through  prayer, 
raised  a  flood  that  rose  higher  and  higher  until  the  bold 
heathen  begged  for  mercy.  He  then  caused  the  earth  to 
open  and  engulf  not  only  the  waters  but  the  wickedest  of 
his  enemies.  When  he  had  brought  to  life  the  children 
drowned  in  the  flood,  he  baptized  the  thoroughly  con- 
verted pagans,  established  a  church,  and  took  ship  for 
Achaia,  while  the  sorrowing  people  watched  him  from  the 
sea-cliff  and  sang  a  triumphal  hymn  in  praise  of  God. 

Wild  enough  the  story  is,  and  sympathetic  to  the 
temper  of  a  poet  whose  Christianity  had  modified  only 
slightly  racial  instincts  of  long  standing.  By  the  device 
of  representing  the  apostles  and  their  followers  as  thanes 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  Mermedonians  as  champions  of 
Satan,  the  author  achieved  a  rough-and-ready  unity  of 
structure  that  is  not  ineffective.  Upon  the  comitatus,  the 
true  heroic  loyalty  in  life  and  death,  he  based  all  the  re- 
lations of  his  characters.  Unhappily  he  did  not  fit  these 
Germanic  trappings  into  the  fabric  of  the  tale,  as  a 
greater  poet  would  have  done  —  as  Cynewulf  did  in 
Elene.  There  is  much  sound  and  fury  with  very  little 
significance  in  many  of  the  descriptions.  Thus  the  Mer- 
medonians attack  the  solitary  and  defenceless  apostles 
with  all  the  noisy  panoply  of  war;  the  voyage  of  Andrew 
is  developed  to  most  disproportionate  length;1  and  the 
night  of  snow  and  bitter  cold  that  attends  the  hero's 
imprisonment,  excellently  pictured  though  it  is,  has  n» 

1  Contrast  the  restraint  of  the  description  of  the  hero's  journey  tc*&, 
Hrothgar's  court  in  Beowulf. 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  LN  OLD  ENGLISH         89 

such  interpretative  value  as  the  terrors  of  the  night  when 
Guthlac  died.  On  the  other  hand,  matters  necessary  to 
an  understanding  of  the  story,  like  the  cure  of  Matthew's 
blindness  and  his  movements  subsequent  to  the  rescue, 
are  strangely  neglected;  and  points  that  called  for  treat- 
ment with  epic  breadth,  like  the  actual  rescue  of  Mat- 
thew, are  passed  over  with  unbecoming  brevity. 

This  failure  to  realize  the  epic  possibilities  of  the  theme 
is  the  chief  defect  of  the  poem  and  marks  it  as  the  work  of 
a  secondary  and  imitative  poet  rather  than  of  a  master 
mind.  On  that  account  it  seems  to  me  improbable  that 
Cynewulf  was  the  author.  To  be  sure,  like  other  poets, 
he  may  have  had  his  failures  as  well  as  his  successes;  but 
in  his  signed  poems  he  displayed  signal  powers  of  mar- 
shalling events,  an  unerring  instinct  for  the  vital  points 
of  a  narrative,  and  a  gift  of  intense  visualization,  that 
are  not  evidenced  by  the  gifted  author  of  Andreas.  The 
imperfect  adaptation  of  Germanic  traits  to  epic  structure, 
which  is  at  once  the  charm  and  the  weakness  of  Andreas, 
is  not  characteristic  of  Cynewulf.  In  default  of  any  clear 
evidence  as  to  authorship,  it  is  probably  better  to  regard 
the  poem  as  the  work  of  some  unknown  upholder  of  the 
Northumbrian  poetic  tradition,  a  writer  who  was  no 
mean  poet,  though  he  strained  overmuch  after  striking 
verbal  effects. 

The  poems  above  described  are  the  only  examples  of 
the  epic  treatment  of  saints'  lives  that  have  been  pre- 
served to  us  among  the  wreckage  of  Northumbrian  cul- 
ture.   They  represent,  one  must  suppose,  a  much  larger 

i 


90  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

body  of  verse,  which  celebrated  the  heroes  and  heroines 
of  the  Church  in  true  Germanic  fashion.  iElfric,  for  ex- 
ample, at  the  close  of  the  tenth  century  spoke  of  a 
Passion  of  St.  Thomas  in  verse,  of  which  wTe  have  no  other 
trace.  Although  conjecture  as  to  the  extent  and  the 
content  of  these  lost  legends  is  idle,  the  specimens  which 
we  owe  to  the  chance  survival  of  a  few  manuscripts  give 
good  cause  to  regard  the  movement  that  brought  them 
forth  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  not 
only  of  English  literature  but  of  hagiography  as  well. 
They  illustrate  the  vitalizing  contact  of  Christian  civili- 
zation with  barbaric  genius,  and  furnish  at  least  one 
instance  of  old  wine  poured  into  new  bottles  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  both.  By  the  noble  and  artistic  form  which 
their  writers  gave  the  legendary  type,  no  less  than  by  the 
inspiring  poetic  narratives  which  they  furnished  to  a  peo- 
ple just  struggling  out  of  barbarism,  they  laid  both  the 
Church  and  the  English  race  under  heavy  obligations. 

The  epic  treatment  of  Christian  subjects  was  not  con- 
fined to  legends  of  the  saints  or  to  Great  Britain.  It  was 
part  of  the  larger  movement  in  which  various  ecclesias- 
tical materials  were  transformed  by  the  Germanic  muse, 
though  nowhere  except  in  England  do  the  surviving  mon- 
uments permit  even  a  guess  as  to  the  course  it  ran.  In 
Old  English  literature  the  so-called  paraphrases  of  the 
Old  Testament,  like  the  older  Genesis,  Exodus,  and 
Daniel,  which  are  really  heroic  poems  rather  than  trans- 
|  lations,  mark  the  first  stage  of  the  adaptative  process. 
Cynewulf 's  masterpiece,  the  Christ,  and  the  brief  Dream 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH        91 

of  the  Rood,  which  may  he  his  work,  have  the  same  char- 
acteristics as  the  epic  legends  of  their  time,  though  they 
are  essentially  lyrical,  and  mark  the  second  stage.  From 
a  later  time,  the  superb  fragments  Judith  and  Genesis  B, 
the  second  a  translation  from  an  Old  Saxon  poem  inter- 
polated in  the  older  Genesis,  show  how  the  influence  of 
the  movement  continued  into  the  ninth  or  even  the  tenth 
century  and  became,  probably  through  English  mission- 
aries, international  in  its  scope. 

Two  poems  of  unknown  authorship  and  date  (though 
they  must  have  been  written  after  Cynewulf  s  time)  de- 
serve particular  mention  because  of  the  legendary  char- 
acter of  the  material  on  which  they  were  based.  They  are 
the  Harrowing  of  Hell  in  the  Exeter  Book  and  a  section 
of  a  loosely  woven  series  of  poems  in  the  Junian  MS., 
which  deals  with  the  events  that  succeeded  Christ's 
passion.  So  loosely  woven  is  this  series  that,  though  it 
is  collectively  known  as  Christ  and  Satan,  it  has  little 
right  to  an  inclusive  title.  The  section  that  concerns  us 
may  well  be  called  the  Harrowing  of  Hell,  since,  like  the 
poem  of  the  Exeter  Book,  it  is  based,  even  though  at 
one  remove,  on  the  Descensus  Chri.sti  ad  Infernos  from  the 
Gospel  af  Nicodemus.  In  these  two  poems  were  made  the 
first  attempts  to  popularize  material  that  during  many 
Centuries  was  t<>  be  part  of  the  common  legendary  store 
of  the  English.  These  attempts  were  not,  it  must  be  said, 
extraordinarily  successful.  Of  the  two,  the  Harrowing  of 

Hell  from  the  Exeter  Book,  with  John  the  Baptist  as 
spokesman  for  the  throng  of  captive  souls,  has  the  better 


92  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

form  and  not  a  little  dramatic  tensity;  yet  it  merely  sug- 
gests, without  rivalling,  the  narratives  of  Cynewulf  and 
his  school.  The  poem  from  the  Junian  MS.,  on  the  other 
hand,  shows  the  weaknesses  of  the  heroic  manner  with  few 
of  its  compensations:  its  emotionalism  is  incoherent,  and 
its  formulae  have  no  power.  Both  were  probably  based 
directly  on  Latin  homilies  now  unknown  to  us;  and  both 
were  composed,  it  is  clear,  in  the  tradition  of  the  great 
Northumbrian  poetry  but  not  by  great  masters  of  it. 
Quite  possibly  they  show  the  havoc  to  the  native  litera- 
ture that  was  wrought  by  the  invasion  of  Norse  pirates. 
The  ravages  of  the  Scandinavian  invaders,  which  began 
in  793,  certainly  explain  in  large  measure  the  decline  of 
the  epic  type,  both  Christian  and  pagan.  As  it  was  de- 
pendent on  the  Church  in  its  origins,  it  suffered  from  the 
eclipse  of  learning  that  darkened  England  for  nearly  a 
century.  Though  the  great  monastic  school  at  York, 
which  had  contributed  Alcuin  to  the  Carlovingian  renais- 
sance just  previous  to  the  beginning  of  the  Danish  in- 
cursions, seems  to  have  retained  for  a  time  something  of 
its  power,  Anglia's  day  of  poetic  and  scholarly  glory  was 
past.  The  ignorance  which  King  ^Elfred  deplored  in  the 
preface  to  his  translation  of  Gregory's  Pastoral  Care,  and 
which  he  did  much  to  dissipate,  settled  upon  the  land. 
If  more  saints'  lives  in  verse  were  written,  they  have 
perished  without  record.  The  West  Saxon  revival  of 
learning  failed  to  kindle  the  old  flame.  The  meagre  relics 
of  poetry  from  post-iElfredian  times  that  we  possess 
show  a  lingering  instinct  for  composition  both  on  secular 


THE  EPIC  LEGEND  IN  OLD  ENGLISH         93 

and  ecclesiastical  themes,  hut  little  of  the  former  power. 
A  Mcnology,  composed  in  the  second  half  of  the  tenth 
century,  served  the  useful  purpose  of  a  vernacular  calen- 
dar of  feast-days  and  imitated  the  phraseology  of  the  old 
poetry,  but  it  named  no  native  saints  and  had  no  trace 
of  originality.  Among  the  poetical  entries  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle  is  one  in  celebration  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor,  a  workman-like  scrap  of  verse  but  in  no  way  so 
remarkable  as  the  parallel  entry  which  contains  the 
Battle  of  Brunanburh.  The  Old  English  epic  legend  was 
dead. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST 

ilHILE  lives  of  saints  in  verse  were  being  fash- 
ioned in  a  new  and  unusually  interesting 
form  by  the  fusion  of  native  and  foreign 
elements,  the  prose  legend  took  its  own 
course,  following  in  somewhat  pedestrian  wise  the  well- 
travelled  roads  of  hagiography.  From  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  movement  that  evangelized  Great  Britain 
during  the  seventh  century,  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
perfectly  natural  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  leaders  to 
encourage  the  writing  of  saints'  lives,  according  to  conti- 
nental models,  in  the  official  language  of  the  Church. 
There  was  no  reason,  indeed,  why  these  legends  should 
differ  in  matter  or  style  from  those  of  other  lands.  The 
missionaries  who  came  from  the  North  had  the  learned 
traditions  of  the  Irish  Church  behind  them,  while  the  fol- 
lowers of  Augustine  continued  to  cherish  their  fellowship 
with  Rome.  Both  before  and  after  Theodore  organized 
the  scattered  missions  of  Britain,  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  century,  into  something  like  ecclesiastical  unity,  the 
island  Christians  in  no  wise  regarded  themselves  as  sep- 
arable from  the  rest  of  the  world.  They  manned  the  out- 
posts of  God's  empire  —  that  was  all.  They  had  the  same 
faith  and  the  same  rites;  they  reverenced  the  same  holy 
men  and  women;  and  if  they  were  scholars,  they  read 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    95 

the  same  books  that  gave  comfort  and  delight  to  the 
Church  at  large. 

According  to  the  general  habit,  evidenced  by  the  local 
martyrologies  of  all  times  and  localities,  the  English 
paid  special  honor  to  certain  saints.  They  would  natu- 
rally copy  or  write  lives  of  those  martyrs  and  confessors 
whose  cults  were  popular  among  them.  They  soon  came 
to  have  saints  of  their  own  also,  and  they  would  wish  to 
record  the  acts  and  miracles  of  these  native  leaders.  To 
that  end  models  were  at  hand:  the  monastic  libraries  of 
both  the  South  and  the  North  were  well-furnished  with 
books.  Their  scholars  needed  only  to  adapt,  according 
to  their  own  ideas  of  style,  the  written  materials  at  their 
command.  What  they  learned  orally  they  could  shape 
along  lines  established  by  the  same  well-marked  tradition. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  pass  in  extensive  review 
tin-  great  number  of  Latin  lives  of  saints  written  in  Great 
Britain  previous  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  since  of  them- 
selves they  belong  rather  to  the  history  of  general  hagi- 
ography  than  to  the  English  branch  of  the  subject.  Only 
in  so  far  as  they  furnished  matter  to  writers  in  the  ver- 
nacular, or  were  the  work  of  outstanding  church  leaders, 
or  contained  the  records  of  native  saints,  do  they  concern 
11-.  I  shall  mention  a  few  specimen  lives  from  the  seventh 
to   lli«-  eleventh  centuries  to  illustrate  the  course  they 

followed. 

y\><\  notable  of  the  Literary  productions  of  the  Celtic 
Church  in  Britain  is  the  life  of  St.  Columba,  the  sixth  oen 
tury  missionary,  by  Adamnan,  who  held  the  abbacy  of 


96  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Iona  during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  ceDtury. 
Adamnan  based  his  Vita  on  an  earlier  life  of  the  saint  by 
Cummian,  one  of  his  predecessors  at  Iona,  but  he  treated 
his  subject  with  great  independence  and  charm.  By 
virtue  of  his  position  he  must  have  had  access  to  all 
sources  of  written  information  about  Columba,  and  he 
must  have  known  from  boyhood  the  oral  traditions  that 
had  been  preserved  in  the  region  of  the  saint's  labors. 
Through  his  knowledge  of  western  Scotland  and  the 
islands  adjacent,  and  through  his  power  of  gathering  pic- 
turesque detail,  he  was  enabled  to  give  his  readers  of  all 
time  not  only  a  clear  outline  of  Columba's  life  but  a 
picture  of  the  scenes  among  which  the  saint  preached  and 
wrought  his  miracles.  The  work  is  an  admirable  specimen 
of  the  biographical  legend.  Its  author  was  perhaps  over- 
credulous;  but  he  was  clear-sighted,  and  uncritical  only 
with  respect  to  powers  invisible.  He  makes  his  readers 
feel  the  penetrating  and  flaming  spirit  which  drove  the 
saint  across  the  sea  from  Ireland  to  found  a  monastery 
on  the  desolate  islet  of  Hy,  and  to  preach  the  Gospel 
among  the  savage  tribes  of  the  North.  He  shows  the 
simple  godliness  of  Columba's  life:  how  he  combined  the 
gift  of  divination  with  that  feeling  for  the  actual  which 
we  call  common-sense,  how  he  dealt  masterfully  with  sin 
and  unbelief,  yet  gave  himself  with  utter  devotion  to  the 
care  of  his  flock.  There  is  a  touch  of  humor  in  the  relation 
of  certain  incidents,  as  when  a  monk,  who  had  come  to 
Columba  with  a  newly  made  copy  of  the  Psalms  to  cor- 
rect, was  told  forthwith  that  a  single  i  in  such-and-such 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    97 

a  chapter  remained  undotted.  The  death  of  the  saint  is 
related  with  rare  feeling  and  good  taste.  Adamnan's 
style  is  not  free  from  the  barbarous  Greek  derivatives  by 
which  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  time  (and  monks  of  Irish  , 
training  certainly  no  less  than  others)  exhibited  their 
[earning;  but  it  is  clear,  and  it  has  a  measure  of  academic 
elegance. 

Contemporary  with  Adamnan  was  a  great  writer  of 
"Wessex,  St.  Ealdhelm,  who  was  abbot  of  Malmesbury 
and  died  in  TOD  as  Bishop  of  Sherborne.  He  was  educated 
in  the  best  schools  of  the  day,  probably  first  under  the 
Irish  scholar  Maelduib  at  Malmesbury  —  an  interesting 
bit  of  evidence  as  to  the  influence  of  Irish  learning  in 
southern  Britain  —  and  later  under  Abbot  Hadrian  at 
Canterbury.  Of  all  English-born  writers  before  the  Con- 
quest, save  Bede  and  Alcuin,  he  has  enjoyed  the  most  J 
wide-spread  and  lasting  renown.  I  have  spoken  in  the 
previous  chapter  of  his  English  verse,  which  has  unhap- 
pily been  lost.  Interesting  as  are  the  works  preserved  to 
us,  they  scarcely  compensate  for  the  disappearance  of 
the  vernacular  poems,  whatever  may  have  been  the  sub- 
jects treated  in  them.  Two  of  his  Latin  treatises,  only, 
deal  with  hagiological  matters:  l)e  Laudibus  Virginum 
dr  Virginiiate  Sanctorum,  in  which  he  illustrates  the 
virtue  <>f  chastity  by  giving  short  biographies  of  holy 
men  and  women  of  every  time  and  land;  ami  a  rendering 
of  tin,  pn>se  work  into  hexameters.  With  a  few  excep- 
tions, the  mints  mentioned  in  the  two  versions  are  the 
same.   T.V  chief  intcresl  to  us  in  these  laudations  of  the 


98  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

saints  is  the  wide  knowledge  shown  by  Ealdhelm,  as  well 
as  the  limitation  of  his  interests.  He  chose  his  examples 
from  among  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  Scriptures  and 
of  the  eastern  and  western  Churches,  but  he  included 
only  one  saint  from  Gaul,  Martin  of  Tours,  and  none 
whatever  from  Celtic  or  English  regions.  His  bookish 
tendencies  are  faithfully  reflected  in  the  list;  and  his 
learning  merits  the  praise  bestowed  upon  it  by  Bede: 
"erat  eruditione  mirandus."  That  he  was  also  "sermone 
nitidus,"  according  to  Bede's  further  judgment,  no  one 
would  now  agree,  for  his  style  is  essentially  labored, 
pompous,  and  artificial  —  stiff  with  the  pedantry  of  over- 
emphasized knowledge. 

A  greater  writer  than  Ealdhelm  and  one  of  the  greatest 
scholars  of  the  Middle  Ages^-thpugh  he  lived  as  a  simple 
monk  until  his  death,  w^sBede  Jiimself .  The  debt  we  owe 
him  for  information  about  the  early  political  and  religious 
history  of  Great  Britain  cannot  be  over-estimated,  while 
his  activity  in  a  surprising  variety  of  literary  fields  makes 
him  the  most  interesting  figure  of  his  century.  He  was 
born  in  672  or  673  and  passed  his  entire  life  as  a  member 
of  the  double  monastery  of  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow.  The 
account  of  himself  which  he  gave  at  the  end  of  his 
Historia  Ecclesiastica  Gentis  Anglorum  tells  the  story  of 
his  quiet  life:  "I  was  born  in  the  territory  of  the  said 
monastery,  and  at  the  age  of  seven  I  was,  by  the  care  of 
my  relations,  given  to  the  most  reverend  Abbot  Benedict, 
and  afterward  to  Ceolfrid,  to  be  educated.  From  that 
time  I  have  spent  the  whole  of  my  life  within  that  mon- 


TROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    99 

astery,  devoting  all  my  pains  to  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures; and  amid  the  observance  of  monastic  discipline 
and  the  daily  charge  of  singing  in  the  Church,  it  has  been 
ever  my  delight  to  learn,  or  teach,  or  write.  In  my  nine- 
teenth year  I  was  admitted  to  the  diaconate,  in  my 
thirtieth  to  the  priesthood,  both  by  the  hands  of  the  most 
reverend  Bishop  John,  and  at  the  bidding  of  Abbot  Ceol- 
frid.  From  the  time  of  my  admission  to  the  priesthood 
to  my  fifty-ninth  year,  I  have  endeavored,  for  my  own 
use  and  that  of  my  brethren,  to  make  brief  notes  upon 
the  holy  Scripture,  either  out  of  the  works  of  the  venerable 
fathers,  or  in  conformity  with  their  meaning  and  inter- 
pretation." This  was  written  in  731.  Four  years  later 
lie  died,  chanting  on  his  death-bed,  according  to  the 
letter  of  one  of  his  fellows,  not  only  hymns  of  the  Church 
but  also  this  song  in  English  ("for  he  was  skilled  in  our 
native  songs"):  — 

Ere  he  travels  the  road  he  must  take  at  the  last, 
No  man  can  be  wiser  than  is  well  that  he  be, 
In  pondering  deeply,  before  his  departure, 
How  much  of  good  or  how  much  of  evil 
After  his  death-day  is  doomed  for  his  soul. 

Aside  from  the  commentaries  and  homilies,  which  Bede 
seems  to  have  valued  beyond  his  other  works,  this  remark- 
able man  wrote  not  only  a  number  of  scientific  treatises 
but  tin-  histories  through  \\ hich  Ik-  is  best  remembered  by 
tin-  modern  world.    !!<■  was,  indeed,  Mm-  greatest  historian 

d  haLioLrr;ipli<T  of  his  age.     Before  705  he  composed  a 

metrical  I.ifr  of  St.  Cuthbrrt,  and  fifteen  or  twenty  years 


100  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

later  he  made  another  version  of  it  in  prose.  For  both  he 
used  an  earlier  life  by  an  anonymous  monk  of  Lindisfarne. 
Evidently  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  sainted  North- 
umbrian leader,  who  twice  fled  from  ecclesiastical  office 
to  live  as  a  hermit  on  the  desolate  isle  of  Fame,  dying 
there  in  687,  Bede  was  rather  the  enthusiastic  eulogist 
than  the  biographer  of  his  hero.  He  enlarged  and  exag- 
gerated the  stories  of  Cuthbert's  asceticism  and  miracles, 
which  he  found  in  the  earlier  Vita,  and  he  embroidered  his 
narrative  with  rather  too  much  rhetoric.  His  account  of 
the  saint's  death,  however,  which  he  got  independently 
from  an  eye-witness,  was  worthy  of  his  pen ;  and  in  general 
he  refashioned  the  cruder  phrases  of  his  predecessor  into 
the  polished  and  smoothly-flowing  Latin  of  which  he 
was  master.  Historically  more  important  than  the  lives 
of  Cuthbert  is  his  work  on  the  abbots  of  Wearmouth  and 
Jarrow,  in  which  he  wrote  the  biographies  of  Benedict 
Biscop,  Ceolfrid,  Eosterwine,  Sigfrid,  and  Hwsetbert. 
These  men  he  "knew  personally,  and  he  gave  a  succinct 
account  of  their  lives  without  sacrifice  either  of  personal 
feeling  or  of  impersonal  judgment.  The  fact  that  none 
of  them  has  been  canonized  does  not  lessen  the  importance 
of  the  work  to  the  student  of  hagiology:  so  Bede  would 
have  written  of  a  saint  whose  deeds  he  could  report  at 
first  hand.1 

More  important  for  the  history  of  saints'  lives,  however, 

1  Bede  used  an  anonymous  work  by  a  member  of  his  own  commu- 
nity as  the  basis  of  his  Lives  of  the  Abbots,  but  he  could  control  all  the 
facts  from  his  own  experience. 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    101 

as  well  as  for  history  of  every  sort,  than  the  biographies 
above-mentioned,  was  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History.  In 
it,  while  tracing  the  story  of  the  Church  in  Britain,  he 
had  occasion  to  give  longer  or  shorter  notices  of  more 
^  than  forty  different  saints.  He  wrote  the  work  when  ap- 
proaching the  end  of  his  life,  and  he  had  at  command  a 
store  of  erudition  such  as  no  other  man  of  his  day  pos- 
sessed: knowledge  gained  from  books  in  many  fields, 
from  men  who  had  borne  their  part  in  events  spiritual 
and  secular,  from  close  observation  of  humanity,  and 
from  meditation  on  the  divine  will.  He  wrote  with  ripe 
wisdom  and  with  rare  power  of  expression.  In  his  pages 
he  recorded  the  deeds  and  deaths  of  the  saints,  from 
Alban  to  Wilbrord,  who  had  made  illustrious  the  mission- 
ary era  of  the  Church  in  Britain.  Though  he  was  perhaps 
over-fond  of  interpreting  natural  events  as  special  mani- 
festations of  God's  grace,  he  was  not  credulous  in  any 
bad  sense:  only  so  devout  of  temper  that  the  supernatural 
seemed  to  him  a  normal  element  of  life.  The  acts  of  the 
hermits,  missionaries,  abbots,  bishops,  and  kings  he  re- 
counted somewhat  briefly,  as  was  necessary  in  a  book  of 
s<>  wide  a  scope;  but  he  gave  all  the  essential  facts  of 
their  lives,  and  sufficient  comment  to  make  the  reader 
understand  the  positions  they  held  in  their  own  times. 
Indeed,  he  combined  brevity  of  statemenl  with  fulness 
of  detail  in  a  manner  worthy  of  emulation  by  any  histo- 
rian whatsoever.    In  80  far  as  modern  scholars  have  been 

able  to  test  his  statements  of  fact,  be  has  been  found  com- 
mendablyvTree  from  error,  extraordinarily  careful  In  the 


102  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

use  he  made  of  materials  drawn  from  many  sources.  As 
a  general  rule  he  freely  acknowledged  his  obligations  to 
previous  writers,  though  his  very  freedom  from  pedantry 
possibly  kept  him  at  times  from  citing  names  that  we 
would  gladly  know,  since  his  work  was  destined  so  largely 
to  supersede  that  of  his  predecessors.  Everywhere  (save 
perhaps  in  his  account  of  St.  Wilfrid)  his  good  faith  is  as 
transparent  as  his  style,  which  is  a  model  of  good  taste  and 
quite  untouched  by  any  affectation  of  spurious  classicism. 
Aside  from  writing  the  works  mentioned  above,  Bede 
translated  from  the  verse  of  Paulinus  a  life  of  St.  Felix 
the  Confessor,  corrected  "ad  sensum"  a  life  of  St.  Anasta- 
sius  which  had  been  badly  translated  from  the  Greek,  and 
wrote  a  general  martyrology  in  which  he  embodied,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  statement,  not  only  all  the  names  of 
martyrs  that  he  could  discover  but  such  facts  as  to  their 
passions  as  he  was  able  to  collect  by  diligent  study. 
This  martyrology  was,  indeed,  one  of  his  best-known  and 
most  influential  works.  Unhappily  it  suffered  so  much 
revision  in  subsequent  centuries,  notably  by  Florus  of 
Lyons  in  the  ninth  century,  that  Bede's  part  in  the  com- 
pilation, as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  cannot  well  be  de- 
termined. Certainly  many  entries  in  the  surviving  version 
seem  foreign  to  Bede's  spirit,  but  it  would  be  uncritical 
on  that  account  to  reject  them,  as  the  most  recent  editor 
of  the  historical  works  is  inclined  to  do.  A  poetical  mar- 
tyrology in  hexameters,  attributed  to  Bede,  cannot  be 
his,  however,  since  it  mentions  facts  that  took  place  after 
his  death. 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    103 

The  work  used  by  Bede  as  the  basis  for  his  account  of 
St.  Wilfrid  of  York  in  the  Ecclesiastical  History,  though 
he  gave  no  acknowledgment  of  his  indebtedness  in  this 
particular  case,  serves  to  illustrate  the  kind  of  biography 
ordinarily  written  by  disciples  of  saints  during  the  early 
part  of  the  eighth  century.  It  is  a  vita  by  /Edde,  who  in 
GG9  was  brought  to  Northumbria  from  Kent  by  Wilfrid  to 
teach  chanting,  and  subsequently  was  closely  attached  to 
the  person  of  the  tempestuous  bishop,  apparently  accom- 
panying him  on  his  last  journey  to  Rome.  Wilfrid  died 
in  709  after  a  career  of  more  than  forty-five  years  as 
bishop,  though  for  much  of  that  time  he  was  not  actually 
in  possession  of  any  see.  Despite  the  controversies  into 
which  he  plunged  the  Church  of  Northumbria,  not  wholly 
through  his  own  fault,  Wilfrid  did  much  to  establish  the 
regular  practice  of  religion  in  the  North;  and  for  five 
years  of  his  life  he  labored  as  a  missionary  in  Sussex  and 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  Self-willed  and  impetuous  though  he 
must  have  been,  he  lacked  neither  zeal  nor  ability;  and  he 
found  an  eager  defender  of  his  romantic  life  in  JSdde. 

Although  by  no  means  so  good  a  Latinist  as  Bede, 
,T!dde  wrote  comprehensibly,  and  did  not  fall  into  stupid 
bathos,  as  the  authors  of  that  day  were  prone  to  do. 
Unfortunately  he  had  no  gift  of  portraying  character  and 
wrote  a  somewhat  dry  record  of  events  rather  than  a 
eh  of  the  saint's  personality.  As  far  as  a  partisan 
could,  li«-  -<'<ins  to  have  told  a  s!  raigl  it  forward  story;  but 

he  was  little  interested  in  Wilfrid's  spiritual  experiences 

and,  OH  the  other  hand,  was  greatly  concerned  to  defend 


104  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

his  patron's  acts  against  the  calumny  of  enemies.  He  was 
writing,  be  it  remembered,  not  long  after  Wilfrid's  death 
and  at  Wilfrid's  monastic  stronghold  of  Ripon.  ^Edde 
recorded  few  miracles :  the  commonplace  wonders  attend- 
ing the  saint's  birth;  occasional  cures  wrought  during  his 
lifetime;  a  case  of  healing  by  means  of  the  water  in 
which  his  shroud  had  been  washed;  and  a  couple  of  mani- 
festations by  flame  and  sky,  indicative  of  his  sanctity. 

A  vita  of  quite  another  sort,  though  probably  written 
not  many  years  later,  is  the  life  of  Gregory  the  Great  by 
an  anonymous  monk  of  Whitby.  It  illustrates  the  diffi- 
culties experienced  by  a  sufficiently  conscientious  scholar 
in  writing  the  biography  of  a  foreign  saint  who  had  been 
dead  for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  Although  it  is  the 
earliest  life  of  Pope  Gregory  extant  and  the  chief  author- 
ity for  most  of  the  miracles  attributed  to  him  by  later 
biographers,  it  gives  but  a  scanty  record  of  his  deeds. 
The  author  himself  complained  that  he  could  not  tell 
more  about  the  saint's  life  because  materials  were  lack- 
ing, and  that  he  was  thus  forced  to  narrate  miracles.  To 
be  sure,  he  justified  his  course  by  saying  that  many  per- 
sons were  accustomed  to  gauge  the  merits  of  a  saint  — 
"  and  not  without  reason  "  —  by  the  signs  he  had  wrought; 
but,  no  doubt  with  the  notion  of  giving  it  greater  his- 
torical solidity,  he  devoted  a  considerable  section  of  his 
work  to  an  account  of  the  conversion  of  Northumbria 
and  the  life  of  King  Edwin.  In  part  he  treated  of  things 
known  to  us  also  through  Bede,  but  the  correspondences 
are  due  to  the  independent  use  by  each  of  the  Liber 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    105 

Pontificalis  and  Gregory's  own  writings.  The  monk  of 
Whitby  succeeded  in  making,  despite  the  difficulties  under 
which  he  worked,  a  most  valuable  little  treatise,  inter- 
esting not  only  for  its  information  about  the  miracles 
thus  early  attributed  to  Gregory  and  about  the  history  of 
Anglia,  but  also  as  the  only  surviving  production  of  the 
great  monastic  school  at  Whitby.  From  it  we  should 
know,  even  if  we  had  no  other  evidence,  how  remarkable 
a  centre  of  enlightenment  was  the  convent  established 
by  St.  Hilde. 

In  the  chapter  preceding  this  I  have  spoken  of  the 
Life  of  St.  Gtrihlac  by  Felix,  but  I  mention  it  once  more 
to  illustrate  how  a  writer  of  the  mid-eighth  century  some- 
times plumed  a  native  saint  with  borrowed  verbiage  even 
while  he  gave  with  seeming  accuracy  the  facts  of  his 
career.  More  original  in  treatment  than  this,  and  more 
interesting  from  the  point  of  view  of  literature,  are  the 
lives  of  St.  W'ilbrord,  the  British  apostle  to  the  Frisians, 
which  were  written  in  verse  and  prose  by  the  famous 

CAIcuin  towards  the  end  of  the  century.  Alcuin  himself, 
thennost  illustrious  scholar  of  the  school  of  York,  the 
librarian  of  that  foundation,  the  founder  of  the  school  of 
St.  Martin's  at  Tours,  was  a  disciple  at  one  remove  of 
Bede.  He  wrote  his  lives  of  Wilbrord  in  the  enlightened 
spirit  to  be  expected  of  a  man  of  his  training  and  en- 
dowments—  in  the  same  temper  in  which  he  later  com- 
posed  bis  sketch  of  the  great  Emperor  Charlemagne,  his 
patron.    Be  was  panegyrist  as  much  as  biographer  and 

did  not  hesitate,  any  more  than  his  master  Bede,  about. 


106  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

paying  as  much  attention  to  miracles  as  to  other  inci- 
dents. He  cultivated  a  style  more  ornate  than  Bede's 
and  was  fond  of  quotations,  but  he  had  genuine  eloquence 
and  not  a  little  personal  charm  of  manner.  His  poem 
on  the  bishops  and  saints  of  the  church  of  York,  which 
doubtless  owed  something  to  Bede's  prose  History  of  the 
Abbots,  furnishes  another  illustration  of  the  urbane  fash- 
ion in  which  it  was  possible  for  a  learned  writer  at  the 
end  of  this  remarkable  eighth  century  to  treat  the  history 
of  a  church  on  the  frontiers  of  civilization.  Not  alto- 
gether dark  was  the  age  of  the  self-possessed  and  polished 
Alcuin. 

The  ninth  century  presents  another  story.  The  Scan- 
dinavian invaders,  who  swept  over  England  and  well-nigh 
overwhelmed  the  Church  in  the  renewed  tide  of  barba- 
rism, plunging  the  country  into  a  weltering  sea  of  blood 
and  war,  made  for  a  time  both  the  practice  of  religion 
and  the  cultivation  of  all  the  arts  most  difficult.  King 
Alfred's  evidence  as  to  the  state  of  learning  in  his  time, 
to  which  I  have  already  referred,  shows  why  we  have  so 
few  literary  monuments,  either  in  Latin  or  English,  dating 
from  the  century  that  separated  him  from  Alcuin.  The 
revival  of  learning  that  iElfred  instituted  and  fostered 
seems  to  have  spent  itself  largely  in  copying  older  works 
and  in  translating  Latin  prose  into  the  vernacular  —  a 
movement  then  first  begun  —  rather  than  in  producing 
anything  new.  Apparently  t*he  writing  'df.  saints?  lives 
remained  in  abeyance,  since  we  have  few  indications  of 
Latin  works  from  that  period.    In  the  second  half  of  the 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    107 

tenth  century,  however,  the  renewal  of  culture  had  pro- 
gressed so  far  that  fresh  biographies  of  saints  were  once 
more  in  demand.  English  lives  were  written  in  large 
numbers,  as  we  shall  see,  while  native  saints  were  again 
celebrated  in  Latin.  Two  of  these  vitas  will  serve  to  illus- 
trate the  character  of  all. 

In  the  year  981  a  monk  of  Winchester,  named  Lantfred, 
undertook  to  write  a  Translatio  et  Miracula  Sancti  Sivith- 
ini.  The  date  we  know,  because  the  author  stated  that 
he  was  writing  ten  years  after  the  translation  of  the 
Baint's  relics,  which  took  place  in  971.  Lantfred  knew 
nothing  about  St.  Swithin's  career  and  did  not  attempt 
to  reconstruct  his  legend,  contenting  himself  with  an 
account  of  the  means  by  which  the  monks  of  Winchester 
were  made  aware  of  the  merits  of  the  sainted  bishop, 
and  describing  with  considerable  detail  the  miracles 
wrought  at  the  shrine  during  a  single  decade.  Taken  in 
conjunction  with  /Elfrie's  narrative  of  the  same  events, 
written  some  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  later  in  English,  the 
work  possesses  great  interest  for  the  history  of  cult, 
though  Lantfred  was  deficient  both  in  critical  sense  and 
in  literary  charm.  He  was  probably  Intent  only  on  record- 
ing the  cures  by  which  his  monastery  had  gathered  wealth 
unci  fame;  yet  he  revealed  much  more  than  he  proposed, 
for  the  turgidity  of  his  style  shows  how  necessary  were 
the  efforts  then  making  to  counteract  the  evils  of  igno- 
rance.    It   is   curious  to  reflect  that   he  wrote  while  the 

enlightened  /Ethelwold,  who  built  up  the  great  school 

of  Abingdon,    was   bishop   of   Winchester.     The   opening 


108  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

of  one  of  Lantfred's  tales  (discreetly  omitted  by  ^Elfric) 
may  be  cited  to  illustrate  how  easily  the  imaginings  of 
simple  folk  were  at  that  time  accepted  as  fact.  A  citizen 
of  Winchester  went  out  to  the  meadows  beside  the  river, 
one  day,  to  look  after  his  horses.  He  fell  asleep  in  the 
afternoon  sunlight  and  awoke  to  see  two  black  women, 
like  furies,  who  chased  him  towards  the  town.  They  were 
stopped  by  an  enormous  woman,  clad  in  snowy  raiment, 
who  wounded  the  man  in  the  right  side  and  left  him  with 
scarcely  strength  enough  to  crawl  to  the  city  gate.  He 
was  subsequently  cured  at  the  tomb  of  St.  Swithin. 

Of  a  far  higher  order  than  Lantfred's  work,  both  in  a 
literary  and  in  an  historical  sense,  is  the  earliest  life  of  St. 
Dunstan  of  Canterbury,  which  was  written  about  the  year 
1000.  The  author,  who  styled  himself  B,  seems  to  have 
been  a  scholarly  continental  Saxon  driven  overseas  by 
some  misfortune.  He  was  a  personal  follower  of  Dunstan 
and  a  witness  of  many  of  the  scenes  that  he  described. 
His  work  thus  belongs  to  the  class  of  biographical  leg- 
ends which  have  historical  value  as  well  as  hagiological 
interest.  It  is  written  in  a  stiff  and  pompous  style,  but 
it  never  sinks  into  absurdity,  apparently  because  the  au- 
thor had  no  illusions  as  to  his  ability  in  writing.  He  was 
a  devoted  disciple  of  the  great  reformer  and  archbishop, 
to  whom  Church  and  state  alike  owed  a  great  debt 
during  the  last  years  of  Anglo-Saxon  independence;  and 
he  was  chiefly  interested  in  showing  what  manner  of  man 
he  had  served.  He  traced  Dunstan's  history  from  birth 
to  death,  but  he  touched  lightly  on  certain  phases  of  it, 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    109 

like  the  saint's  monastic  reforms,  which,  though  import- 
ant, would  have  come  little  within  the  direct  knowl- 
edge of  a  man  who  was  first  drawn  into  the  archbishop's 
circle  at  Canterbury.  There  is  much  likelihood  in  the 
suggestion  of  Bishop  Stubbs  that  the  stories  of  Dunstan's 
childhood,  the  accounts  of  his  early  temptations  and 
visions,  were  taken  from  the  saint's  own  lips,  since  they 
"bear  the  impress  of  the  same  mind,  a  mind  slightly 
morbid  and  very  sensitive,  but  pure  and  devout,  void  of 
grossness  and  grotesqueness."  Indeed,  though  the  life 
is  full  of  wonders,  they  are  largely  subjective:  contests 
with  the  powers  of  evil  or  clairvoyant  visions.  B's  vita 
stands  in  marked  contrast  to  the  life  by  Adelard,  written 
within  the  next  decade,  which  shows  how  the  saint  had 
already  become  a  hero  of  legend  rather  than  of  history, 
a  worker  of  miracles  rather  than  a  man  highly  endowed 
with  imagination,  energy  of  mind,  and  administrative 
ability. 

Legends  in  Latin  thus  followed  the  fortunes  of  eccle- 
siastical learning  throughout  the  entire  pre-Conquest 
period.  They  furnish  an  entirely  trustworthy  index  to 
political  and  religious  conditions.  Of  lives  of  saints  in 
English  prose,  before  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth  century, 
we  have  no  trace.  Presumably  it  was  deemed  sufficient, 
while  the  impulse  to  poetic  production  endured,  to  use 
the  vernacular  for  verse  only,  which  would  appeal  to 
the  ears  of  the  unlearned.  Men  who  could  read  would 
be  able  to  read  Latin,  and  would  prefer  to  use  that 
tongue.    The  decline  of  the  epic  and  the  eclipse  of  learn- 


110  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

ing  during  the  ninth  century  brought  about,  however, 
an  entirely  different  state  of  affairs.  King  iElfred  ex- 
pressed his  wonder  that  the  men  of  a  former  day  should 
have  neglected  to  open  the  books  of  the  past  to  the  un- 
lettered, and  he  himself  did  much  by  translating,  or 
inspiring  translation,  to  remedy  this  deficiency.  One  of 
his  works,  the  translation  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History, 
properly  concerns  this  hagiological  record.  Though  it 
was  an  adequate  rendering  of  the  original,  the  translator 
omitted  and  condensed  wherever,  as  far  as  one  can  see, 
the  matter  seemed  to  him  unimportant.  Accordingly  it 
is  interesting  to  note  the  changes  made  in  Bede's  treat- 
ment of  the  saints:  that,  for  example,  the  accounts  of 
Gregory  and  Augustine  were  considerably  reduced,  and 
the  activities  of  German  and  Columba  passed  over  with- 
out mention. 

From  some  time  in  the  second  half  of  the  ninth  century 
dates  a  vernacular  prose  Martyrology,  recording  twenty- 
one  English  saints  among  more  than  two  hundred  of  for- 
eign origin.  The  work,  which  is  not  only  clumsy  as  to 
style  but  inaccurate  as  to  fact,  shows  the  depth  of  igno- 
rance from  which  Alfred  rescued  England.  Except  as  illus- 
trating the  difficulty  with  which  learning  was  kept  alive 
at  all  during  the  wars  of  the  ninth  century,  it  has  no^ 
importance.  It  was  made  in  some  monastery  of  Mercia, 
perhaps  of  Lincolnshire,  as  has  been  conjectured  from  the 
inclusion  of  three  saints  from  that  county;  and  it  was 
certainly  based  on  a  Latin  original,  though  whether  it 
was  a  verbal  translation  or  an  abridgment  has  not  been 


TROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    111 

determined.  Yet  at  a  time  when  very  few  men  on  either 
side  Humber  could,  in  /Elfred's  phrase,  "understand 
their  service  books  in  English  or  translate  even  a  letter 
from  Latin  into  English,"  this  martyrology,  crude  though 
it  was,  must  have  been  useful. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  iElfredian  revival  of  letters  had 
no  immediate  effect  in  producing  lives  of  saints.  What- 
ever the  cause,  during  the  first  half  of  the  tenth  century 
there  seem  to  have  been  written  very  few  legends  either 
in  Latin  or  in  the  vernacular.  In  English  there  is  pre- 
served a  life  of  «S/.  Chad,  the  Mercian  bishop  of  the  seventh 
century,  which  could  not  have  been  made  later  than  OoO; 
but  it  stands  quite  alone,  a  waif,  and  a  very  ragged  one. 
It  seems  to  be  the  translation  of  a  Latin  homily  for  use 
on  the  saint's  day,  which  was  in  turn  based  on  Bede; 
and  it  follows  Bede's  account  slavishly,  though  often  in- 
accurately. It  was  written  in  Anglia,  as  was  natural  in 
view  of  the  restriction  of  Chad's  fame  at  the  time.  That 
no  worthier  representative  of  the  prose  legend  than  this 
should  have  been  left  to  us  may  be  partly  due  to  chance, 
but  to  all  appearances  very  few  lives  were  written  until 
the  Benedictine  reform  of  the  monasteries  in  the  second 
half  <>f  the  tenth  century. 

From  the  time  of  fins  movement,  however,  and  prob- 
ably on  account  of  tin-  revived  interest  in  ;ill  ecclesiasl  ical 
niiitters  which  accompanied  Hie  adoption  by  such  mon- 
asteries as  Abingdon,  Winchester,  Glastonbury,  and  ( Jan- 
terbury  of  tin-  form  of  the  Benedictine  rule  that  had 
been  established  at  Fleury,  tin-  writing  of  legends  in 


112  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

English  prose  became  a  much  practised  art.  If  we  may 
judge  properly  by  the  specimens  preserved,  this  activity 
produced  nothing  of  great  value,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  literature  or  of  history,  except  for  the  work  of  a  single 
author,  ^Elfric.  However,  certain  translations  of  which 
I  shall  first  speak  serve  to  illustrate  the  lines  along  which 
popular  devotion  ran  during  the  second  half  of  the  tenth 
century. 

In  Anglian  territory  was  made  a  free  translation  of 
Felix's  Vita  S.  Guthlaci,  which  had  served  in  the  eighth 
century,  or  the  early  ninth,  as  the  basis  for  two  poems 
about  the  hermit  of  the  Fens.  From  the  fact  that  this 
prose  rendering  survives  in  two  versions  (though  one  is 
a  mere  fragment)  we  are  led  to  suppose  that  St.  Guthlac's 
fame  had  continued  to  be  cherished  at  least  in  the  mid- 
land counties  of  England.  The  translation  avoids  the 
bombast  of  the  original,  but  it  has  no  individuality  of  its 
own  despite  the  liberties  taken  with  the  text  of  Felix. 
It  could  hardly  have  been  made  at  or  near  Crowland, 
where  the  saint  was  buried,  else  there  would  have  been 
added  at  least  some  of  the  later  miracles  performed  at 
his  shrine.  As  it  is,  the  work  merely  indicates  the  general 
effort  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  popular  legendary 
figures  among  the  less  learned  members  of  the  com- 
munity. I  may  add  that  one  of  these  two  versions  of  the 
prose  Guthlac  seems  to  have  been  used  as  a  homily  on 
the  saint's  day. 

The  Blickling  Homilies,  also  of  Anglian  origin  and  of 
about  the  same  date,  likewise  include  a  half  dozen  legends. 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST  113 

These  homilies  are  a  collection  of  sermons  in  prose,  pre- 
served in  a  manuscript  at  Blickling  Hall  in  Norfolk.  The 
approximate  date  of  the  collection  is  assured  by  the 
statement  in  the  homily  for  Holy  Thursday,  where  the 
writer  names  the  year  971.  It  should  be  said,  however, 
that  this  date  cannot  be  assumed  to  be  exact  save  for 
the  particular  sermon  in  which  it  occurs.  The  homilies 
have  received  much  praise  as  early  examples  of  good 
prose  narrative;  but  they  deserve  it  only  in  so  far  as 
adequate  translation  may  always  be  commended,  for 
Professors  Foerster  and  Napier  have  shown  that  their 
merit  is  due  almost  entirely  to  the  Latin  texts  on  which 
they  were  based.  All  of  the  legends  save  one,  which  deals 
with  a  foreign  saint,  are  from  biblical  or  apocryphal 
sources.  There  is  an  Assumption  of  flic  lirgin,  an  account 
of  the  Birth  of  John  Baptist,  a  free  and  careless  transla- 
tion of  the  Ajiparition  of  St.  Michael  at  Mt.  Garganus, 
and  an  equally  free  but  somewhat  better  rendering  of  the 
Life  of  St.  Martin  by  Sulpicius  Severus.  They  seem  to 
be  the  work  of  various  men,  collected  by  the  scribes  who 
put  together  the  Blickling  MS.  To  a  single  translator 
are  probably  due  a  Peter  and.  Paul  and  an  Andrew, 
which  are  taken  literally  from  well-known  Latin  ver- 
sions of  the  apocryphal  acts  of  the  apostles.  From  the 
Pad  thai  two  of  the  legends  have  been  found  in  other 
manuscripts  than  that  containing  the  homilies,  it  is  clear 
thai  the  desire  for  stories  of  the  saints  in  the  vernacular 
v.. i-  not  [united  to  any  one  monastery.  If  it  be  permis- 
sible to  judge  Prom  the  lack  of  explanation  ami  moraliz- 


114  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

ing,  these  translations  were  not  made  through  the  direct 
influence  of  the  schools  of  Dunstan  and  iEthelwold;  but 
they  could  scarcely  have  been  written  except  for  the 
Benedictine  reform  which  those  two  great  men  did  so 
much  to  promote. 

Two  fragments  concerning  the  legends  of  the  Kentish 
royal  family  during  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  one 
of  them  probably  written  at  St.  Augustine's  in  Canter- 
bury, show  what  interest  was  felt  at  this  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  purely  local  saints,  and  show  likewise  the  impulse 
to  make  a  record  of  them  in  English.  These  two  frag- 
ments, which  are  quite  unliterary  in  character,  have  a 
common  source  in  Bede  but  are  mutually  independent: 
more  than  one  monastery  in  Kent,  it  would  seem,  felt 
concerned  with  St.  Mildred  and  her  relatives,  who  had 
aided  the  missionaries  in  their  efforts  to  establish  Chris- 
tianity in  the  kingdom  of  which  they  were  the  rulers. 
The  same  tendency  to  preserve  in  English  speech  the 
names  of  English  saints  is  illustrated  by  a  menology, 
usually  entitled  The  Saints  of  England,  which  survives  in 
several  manuscripts.  The  writer,  who,  from  the  number 
of  Wessex  saints  whom  he  cited,  seems  to  have  been  a 
West  Saxon,  compiled  a  list  of  ninety  men  and  women 
whose  merits  had  raised  them  to  sainthood.  He  gave  no 
account  of  them,  not  even  their  dates,  but  after  the 
manner  of  the  primitive  martyrologies  merely  recorded 
their  burial-places.  He  headed  his  list  with  Alban  and 
carried  it  in  somewhat  disorderly  fashion  down  to  his 
own  day.    That  the  work  was  regarded  as  being  of  per- 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    115 

mancnt  value  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  numerous  copies 
of  a  Latin  translation  of  it,  made  in  the  following  cen- 
tury, have  been  preserved.  Because  of  its  originality  it 
does,  indeed,  possess  far  greater  interest  than  the  ninth 
century  Martyrology  previously  mentioned. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  close  relations  that  subsisted 
between  the  English  and  Gallican  Churches  during  the 
second  half  of  the  tenth  century  are  indicated  by  a  frag- 
mentary Passion  of  St.  Quentin,  a  martyr  of  Amiens  in 
the  days  of  Roman  rule.  From  the  few  lines  left  us  (pre- 
served in  the  same  manuscript  with  Beowulf)  the  legend 
seems  to  have  been  a  free  but  not  particularly  happy 
translation  of  a  Latin  Passio  which  has  survived  in  its 
entirety.  Unimportant  though  the  fragment  is  on  any 
other  score,  it  shows  that  under  the  influence  of  a  new 
discipline  the  regular  clergy  were  beginning  to  introduce 
new  cults  in  order  to  strengthen  and  inspire  believers  by 
the  example  of  men  who  in  neighboring  countries  had 
met  death  for  the  faith. 

Although  the  works  of  which  I  have  been  speaking 
have  considerable  interest  as  showing  the  trend  of  devo- 
tion to  the  saints  and  the  increase  of  knowledge  that  was 
taking  place,  they  would  be  insufficient  of  themselves  to 
m;irk  the  later  tenth  century  as  unusual  for  its  produc- 
tion of  saints'  legends  in  English.  The  writings  of  one  ^i 
man,  however,  were  so  noteworthy  thai  the  last  years  of 
the  century,  at  any  rate,  must  !>«■  regarded  as  remarkable. 
The  author  in  question  was  .Klfric 

Tin-  identity  of  this  greal  man,  whose  zeal  for  the  edu- 


116  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

cation  of  his  countrymen  has  been  surpassed  by  no  one 
in  the  long  history  of  English  letters,  who  united  with 
his  enthusiasm,  moreover,  very  considerable  learning  and 
a  certain  grace  of  style,  remained  obscure  from  at  least 
the  twelfth  century  till  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth. 
By  the  time  of  William  of  Malmesbury,  about  1120,  it 
had  been  so  far  forgotten  that  William  spoke  of  iElfric 
as  the  abbot  of  his  own  monastery,  an  iElfric  who  after- 
wards became  bishop  of  Crediton.  In  the  era  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation,  and  later,  as  scholars  came  to 
study  the  writings  and  personality  of  iElfric,  he  was  sup- 
posed to  be  either  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  who 
died  in  1005  or  the  archbishop  of  York  who  died  in  1051. 
Yet  he  could  have  been,  it  has  been  found,  neither  of 
these  men;  and  he  was  a  person  of  far  less  importance 
than  they  in  the  government  of  the  Church,  though  in 
learning  and  in  ultimate  influence  far  greater.  Born 
about  the  year  955,  he  seems  to  have  been  placed  at  an 
early  age  in  yEthelwold's  monastic  school  of  Winchester. 
There  he  gained  a  knowledge  of  Latin,  of  Church  history, 
and  of  theology  that  fitted  him  to  become  the  greatest 
teacher  of  his  age  and  a  writer  skilled  in  the  use  of  both 
the  learned  and  the  vulgar  tongues.  Though  he  cannot 
be  regarded  as  a  great  universal  scholar  like  Bede,  he 
absorbed  such  learning  as  had  been  provided  for  the  apt 
student  by  the  Benedictine  revival  of  letters,  and  he 
acquired  an  intellectual  enlightenment  that  was  remark- 
able in  a  generation  not  much  removed  from  the  one  in 
which,  according  to  JEtf ric's  own  testimony,  "  no  English 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    117 

priest  could  write  or  understand  a  letter  in  Latin."  It 
was,  no  doubt,  his  realization  of  the  abysses  of  ignorance 
which  had  engulfed  his  countrymen  between  Alfred's 
time  and  his  own  that  turned  his  energies  of  mind  towards 
the  spread  of  education  rather  than  the  increase  of  his 
own  learning.  He  was  capable,  for  himself,  of  distin- 
guishing the  true  from  the  false,  in  matters  of  fact,  but 
he  was  content  to  follow  the  teachings  of  his  masters 
when  it  came  to  niceties  of  interpretation.  In  his  own 
writings  he  professed  the  wish  to  give  sound  information 
without  troubling  his  readers  with  subtleties  beyond 
their  grasp  or  with  things  likely  to  corrupt  their  faith; 
and  he  was  not  unsuccessful  in  so  doing.  A  man  of  deep 
sympathies  he  must  have  been,  broad-minded  and  intelli- 
gent, possessed  withal  of  real  fervor  of  spirit. 

In  987  /Elfric  was  sent  from  Winchester  to  the  newly 
founded  abbey  of  Cernel  in  Dorset,  where  he  was  oc- 
cupied in  teaching  the  monks.  How  long  he  remained 
there  we  do  not  know,  but  we  may  assume  with  some 
measure  of  certainty  that  he  returned  to  Winchester  to 
r<  siime  his  work  as  teacher  and  writer.  During  this 
pericxl,  in  addition  to  the  homilies  of  which  I  shall  speak 
later,  lie  composed  treatises  on  the  computation  of  time 
and  other  natural  phenomena,  wj^)te_a._Grfl7a7raar.and  an 
elementary   Latin   reader  in  dialogue   form,    prepared   a 

Glossary  of  Latin  and  English,  and  translated  several 

books  of  the  old  Testament.    In  1005  he  was  sent,  to 

Kynsham  as  abbot  of  a  monastery  just  established  there 
by  the  LaMonnan  .Lt  helina-r,  who  had  been  his  patron 


118  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

and  friend  from  early  manhood.  From  this  time  till  his 
death,  which  probably  took  place  between  1020  and  1025, 
he  seems  to  have  found  less  leisure  or  incentive  to  write; 
but  he  made  excerpts  from  iEthelwold's  De  Consuetudine 
Monachorum  for  the  use  of  his  monks,  prepared  an  intro- 
ductory work  On  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  added 
various  sermons  to  his  earlier  series  of  homilies,  and  com- 
posed a  Latin  vita  of  his  spiritual  father,  St.  iEthelwold. 

The  writings  of  ^Elfric  that  give  him  importance  in  the 
history  of  English  legends  are  three  series  of  discourses, 
the  first  two  usually  designated  as  Catholic  Homilies,  and 
the  third  as  Passions  or  Lives  of  the  Saints.  Each  series 
was  designed  to  include  forty  homilies,  running  through- 
out the  Church  year,  though  several  sermons  were  added 
by  the  author  to  the  original  number.  The  first  two 
series  were  dedicated  to  Archbishop  Sigeric  and  must 
have  been  completed  between  the  years  990  and  994, 
while  that  prelate  held  the  see  of  Canterbury.  The  third 
series  can  be  dated  between  996  and  998  by  a  reference 
to  iEthelwold  as  a  saint  and  the  address  to  the  Ealdorman 
iEthelweard,  who  probably  died  soon  after  that  time. 

Although  the  two  earlier  collections  were  designed  for 
the  instruction  of  laymen  in  the  gospels  appropriate  to 
the  Sundays  and  general  festivals  of  the  ecclesiastical 
year,  while  the  third  series  had  the  express  purpose  of 
telling  the  unlearned  what  they  ought  to  know  "about 
the  passions  and  lives  of  those  saints  .  .  .  whom  the  monks 
honor  with  special  services,"  all  three  have  a  similar 
homiletic  tone.  Between  the  first  and  second  series  there 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    119 

is  this  difference:  the  first  contains  more  scriptural  nar- 
rative and  exegesis,  the  second  more  history  and  legend. 
In  the  third  collection  this  tendency  is  so  far  developed 
that  most  of  the  numbers  contain  narratives  of  the  saints, 
though  tempered  with  much  explanation  and  moralizing 
comment.  It  will  be  seen  that,  as  his  work  proceeded, 
/Elfric  became  more  and  more  the  story-teller,  less  and 
It  -s  the  preacher.  The  same  causes  that  led  to  this,  one 
cannot  doubt,  made  him  use  increasingly  a  rude  form  of 
alliterative  verse  as  his  medium  of  expression.  His  sym- 
pathy with  the  young,  which  appeared  very  charmingly 
in  the  dialogue  of  his  Latin  reader,  no  less  than  his  passion 
for  the  proper  education  of  the  unlearned,  which  can  be 
seen  in  many  passages  throughout  his  works,  dictated  his 
choice  of  the  subjects  and  the  style  of  treatment  that 
would  most  captivate  his  audience.  He  had  no  fear, 
obviously,  of  popularizing. 

In  the  two  series  of  Catholic  Homilies  ^Elfric  told  the 
legends  of  ten  apostles,  and  mentioned,  but  did  not  nar- 
rate, the  history  of  St.  Thomas,  because  it  "long  since  was 
translated  from  Latin  into  English  verse"  and  because 
it  contained  one  incredible  incident.  He  also  included 
such  well-known  legends  as  Laurence,  Basil,  Clement, 
Dionytiiu,  Benedict,  and  Martin,  as  well  as  Thcophilus, 
the  Apparition  <>j  St.  Michael,  the  Seven  Sleepers  of 
EpheetU,  and  the  Invention  of  the  Cross.  In  his  second 
series  he  drew  on  Bede  for  certain  legends  of  peculiar 
interest  to  the  English,  giving  Gregory  the  (heat  and 
Cuthbrrt,  and  the  visions  of  Furseus  and  Drihthdm.    lie 


120  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

also  gave  in  his  third  series  a  few  stories  of  English 
saints  —  Alban,  Etheldred,  Swithin,  Oswald,  and  King  Ed- 
mund ;  but  he  made  the  most  marked  departure  from 
his  earlier  choice  of  subjects  by  the  introduction  of  women 
saints  into  his  lists.  Except  in  the  case  of  St.  Swithin, 
whose  fame  as  a  worker  of  miracles  was  but  two  decades 
old  and  had  come  under  his  personal  observation  at 
Winchester,  he  related  only  legends  that  could  have  been 
found  in  any  well-stocked  monastic  library  of  the  time. 
Certain  narratives  he  used  more  than  once,  like  that  biog- 
raphy of  Martin  of  Tours  by  Sulpicius  Severus,  which  he 
translated  with  something  like  completeness  in  his  Lives 
of  the  Saints  after  having  told  the  story  briefly  in  the 
Homilies. 

yElfric,  though  he  called  himself  merely  a  translator, 
did  far  more  than  turn  Latin  prose  into  his  own  tongue. 
He  was  more  than  a  compiler,  indeed,  as  we  ordinarily  un- 
derstand compilation,  for  he  kept  his  mind  alert  against 
error,  bad  taste,  and  inexpediency  —  open  to  purpose  and 
effect.  The  range  of  his  reading  was  perhaps  less  wide 
than  would  be  indicated  by  the  sources  of  his  material, 
since,  as  Professor  Foerster  has  remarked,  he  may  have 
found  most  of  his  originals  in  a  few  collections  of  legends. 
At  the  same  time,  he  must  be  given  credit  for  a  vigor  of 
handling  that  is  most  admirable.  A  legend  never  suffered 
from  his  treatment.  Teacher  he  always  was,  as  I  have 
said,  but  a  wise  teacher  who  knew  when  and  how  to  use 
pure  narrative. 

His  verse,  which  is  often  scarcely  distinguishable  from 


PROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST     121 

rhythmical  prose,  illustrates  his  talent  for  adapting  a  par- 
ticular means  to  a  given  end.  Far  removed  from  the 
verse  of  the  epic  legend  in  all  the  elements  of  style,  lack- 
ing characteristic  epithets  and  sometimes  even  the  allit- 
eration inherent  in  the  form,  it  yet  differs  from  prose  in 
the  choice  and  grouping  of  words;  and  doubtless  it  had  for 
its  readers  and  hearers  a  charm  difficult  of  perception  by 
modern  scholars  to  whom  the  laws  of  Old  English  poetry 
seem  more  immutable  than  they  did  to  the  men  of  the 
tenth  century.  In  any  case,  /Elfric  used  his  rhythm  in  a 
manner  peculiar  to  himself,  and  gave  to  such  legends  as 
he  chose  to  present  in  verse  a  form  very  interesting  in  the 
history  of  legend-writing.  Greater  master  of  prose  than 
of  verse  he  certainly  was,  probably  the  best  writer  in  that 
medium,  as  far  as  English  was  concerned,  before  the 
Norman  Conquest,  but  he  was  not  unskilled  in  the  art  of 
poetry  as  well.  His  Latin,  whether  in  prefaces  to  various 
English  works  or  in  his  Life  of  St.  /Ethelwold,  shows  the 
same  characteristics  as  the  rest  of  his  writing:  simplicity, 
directness,  effectiveness.  Indeed,  this  vita  of  the  man  to 
whom  he  owed  and  acknowledged  a  great  debt  for  en- 
lightenment of  spirit  is  distinguished  from  the  mass  of 
tenth  century  legends  by  the  same  qualities  that  make  all 
his  work  remarkable.  It  is  free  from  bombastic  rhetoric, 
and  it  is  distinguished  by  clarity  of  judgment  and  speech, 
while  warm  with  sympathy  and  tender  with  knowledge. 
In  the  opening  years  of  the  eleventh  century  was  living 
a  great  homilist,  whose  name  is  inseparably  connected 
with  .Klfric's,  though  in  the  writing  of  legends  he  t«...k 


122  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

little  part.  Wulfstan,  to  whom  I  refer,  was  archbishop  of 
York  from  1002  until  1023.  Of  the  sermons  ascribed  to 
him  because  of  somewhat  vague  hints  in  manuscript  col- 
lections only  eight,  as  was  proved  by  Professor  Napier, 
can  safely  be  considered  his,  though  Dr.  Kinard  has 
since  shown  that  seven  more  have  such  a  marked  simi- 
larity to  the  others  that  they  may  well  be  the  work  of  the 
same  author.  None  of  the  sermons  proved  to  be  Wulf- 
stan's  contains  a  legend:  he  was  fervent  in  preaching  as 
iElfric  was  fervent  in  teaching,  and  apparently  he  found 
narrative  no  help  to  his  earnest  exhortation.  Certain 
other  writers,  however,  with  whose  work  the  scribes  have 
mixed  his,  used  the  legend  with  considerable  effect.  In 
one  sermon  of  the  collection  there  is  a  brief  account  of 
the  adventures  of  Peter  and  Paul  with  the  magician 
Simon;  in  another  there  is  a  story,  taken  from  Gregory  of 
Tours,  of  a  dead  child  who,  through  the  merits  of  St. 
Maurice,  was  allowed  to  comfort  his  mother  with  song; 
and  in  still  others  there  are  visions  of  heaven  and  hell. 

A  few  scattered  legends  from  the  eleventh  century 
should  be  mentioned  here  to  complete  the  history  of  the 
type  up  to  the  Norman  Conquest.  Some  of  them  are 
mere  fragments,  and  they  indicate  no  important  varia- 
tions in  choice  of  subject  or  manner  of  treatment  after 
the  time  of  iElfric.  Some  of  them,  however,  possess  con- 
siderable intrinsic  interest,  either  because  they  show  what 
saints  were  held  in  special  veneration  or  because  they 
represent  early  forms  of  particular  legends. 

There  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  group  of  stories  from  the 


PROSE   LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST    123 

apocryphal  gospels.  The  Irish  and  English  Churches  pre- 
served these  books,  and  obviously  loved  them,  though 
the  wisdom  of  Rome  had  for  centuries  been  trying  to 
uproot  the  more  fantastic  of  them  and  to  prune  the 
remainder  of  their  heterodoxy.  /Elfric,  who  used  the 
apostle  legends  from  the  Abdias  collection,  was  aware  of 
the  faults  of  the  apocryphal  stories  and  long  hesitated  to 
translate  the  Passion  of  Thomas  on  that  account.  Other 
writers  were  less  prudent.  Thus  we  have  preserved  in  an 
eleventh  century  manuscript  brief  fragments  in  Latin  and 
English  of  Jamncs  and  Mambres,  a  legend  that  had  been 
pretty  thoroughly  destroyed  elsewhere  than  in  England. 
The  very  popular  Pseudo-Matthew  was  likewise  translated 
in  part,  though  in  no  distinguished  fashion,  giving  the 
history  of  Mary  up  to  the  birth  of  Christ.  Certain  pe- 
culiarities of  the  version  may  perhaps  be  due  to  a  Latin 
text  different  from  any  still  extant.  More  important  than 
this  are  three  forms  of  a  translation  of  the  Gospel  of  Nico- 
demus,  which  could  not  have  been  made  later  than  lOoO. 
Christ's  "harrowing  of  hell,"  based  on  this  source,  had 
been  a  theme  popular  with  the  Northumbrian  poets,  as 
we  have  seen;  its  continued  popularity  to  the  end  of  the 
Old  English  period  is  attested  by  this  rather  free  render- 
ing of  the  story.  Two  forms  of  the  Vindieta  Sulratoris,  an 
important  early  form  of  the  Veronica  legend,  also  exist, 
though  they  seem  to  be  variants  of  the  same  transla- 
tion. 

Of  interest  and  value,  quite  apart  from  its  place  among 
Rnglurfi    legends,   is   the  Hixtory  of  the  Holy   Rood-Tree. 


124  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Although  preserved  by  the  hand  of  a  twelfth  century 
copyist,  it  has  been  shown  by  its  editor,  Professor  Napier, 
to  represent  a  translation  made  in  the  eleventh  century. 
No  other  version  of  the  legend  of  the  Cross  in  this  form 
from  so  early  a  date  is  known  to  exist.  The  history  begins 
with  Moses  and  is  carried  down  to  the  final  disposition 
of  the  Cross  by  St.  Helena.  Presumably  the  merits  of 
the  Old  English  work  are  due  rather  to  the  lost  Latin 
original  than  to  the  translator,  yet  it  must  be  praised  as 
a  clear  rendering  of  a  highly  interesting  story.  The  Dis- 
covery of  the  Sacred  Cross,  which  has  the  same  theme  and 
in  general  the  same  details  as  Cynewulf's  Elene,  is  like- 
wise an  intelligent,  if  uninspired,  translation  from  the 
Latin.  Apparently  the  original  must  have  been  very 
similar  to  the  text  of  the  legend  printed  in  the  Bollandists' 
Acta  Sanctorum,  which  possesses  few  of  the  traits  adapted 
by  Cynewulf  so  admirably  to  the  purposes  of  his  epic 
narrative. 

The  considerable  range  of  reading  that  was  open,  even 
to  the  unlearned,  during  the  eleventh  century,  is  indicated 
by  three  tales  from  the  Vitas .  Patrum,  which  were  trans- 
lated by  some  unknown  writer  of  the  time  who  did  not 
share  iElfric's  scruples  about  opening  the  "subtleties"  of 
that  work  to  the  laity.1  Two  of  the  tales  are  mere  anec- 
dotes from  the  Verba  Seniorum  which  Pelagius  put  into 
Latin;  but  the  third  gives  the  surprising  history  of  the 
Syrian  Malchus,  a  renegade  monk  who  was  captured  by 
Saracens  and  only  after  the  most  romantic  adventures 
1  See  his  Latin  preface  to  the  Lives  of  the  Saints. 


PROSE   LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST     125 

found  his  way  back  to  his  monastery.  In  old  age  he  told 
his  story  to  St.  Jerome,  by  whom  it  was  recorded.  Such 
a  tale,  even  in  a  crude  translation,  would  give  the  common 
men  of  England  a  breath  of  the  Orient  such  as  the  earlier 
Phoenix  showed  them  to  be  capable  of  appreciating. 
From  the  Vitae  Patrum  was  also  taken  a  life  of  St.  Mary 
of  Egypt,  which  is  found  in  three  manuscripts  of  /Elfric's 
Lives  of  the  Saints,  though  apparently  inserted  in  the 
completed  work  by  some  later  scribe  than  the  original 
copyist.  The  translation  was  done  at  least  after  the 
manner  of  /Elfric  and  under  his  influence;  yet  because  of 
the  doubts  cast  upon  its  origin  it  cannot  now  be  admit- 
ted into  the  canon  of  his  legendary  writings. 

A  somewhat  peculiar  legend  is  that  of  St.  Michael, 
known  to  us  by  a  single  manuscript.  It  reviews  the  deeds 
and  glories  of  the  archangel  in  the  fashion  of  panegyric, 
up  to  his  dragon-fight.  Though  in  prose,  it  has  something 
like  a  refrain,  recurring  at  intervals:  "This  is  the  holy 
high-angel  Saint  Michael."  As  to  source  and  general 
treatment  it  still  awaits  investigation.  A  fragment  of  a 
Life  of  St.  Christopher,  preserved  in  the  Beoivulf  manu- 
script, has  no  distinction  save  that  it  indicates  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  earlier  form  of  that  legend  in  eleventh  century 
England,  for  it  follows  the  Latin  source  closely  and  is 
written  in  clumsy  prose.  More  interesting  arc  the  three 
versions  of  the  Passion  of  St.  Man/ant,  two  of  which  only 
arc  extant.  One  of  these  seems  to  treat  the  Latin  original 
with  considerable  freedom,  although,  as  is  often  the  case, 
we  cannot  be  sure  that  we  possess  the  text  used  by  the 


126  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

translator.  At  all  events,  the  legend  is  told  in  a  clear  and 
fluent  style,  not  unworthy  of  praise. 

The  lives  of  St.  Giles  and  St.  Nicholas,1  found  in  the 
manuscript  at  Cambridge  that  contains  one  version  of 
the  Margaret  legend,  serve  to  show  that  these  two  saints, 
later  very  popular  in  England,  were  already  the  objects 
of  devotion.  The  legends  are  written  in  good  pedestrian 
prose  and  seem  to  be  commonplace  translations  from 
Latin. 

It  is  remarkable  that  lives  of  English  saints  should  be 
lacking  among  these  eleventh  century  legends.  Osbern, 
who  wrote  a  Latin  Life  of  Dunstan  in  1067,  speaks  in  his 
prologue  of  certain  lives  of  the  saint  which  were  burnt  in 
a  fire  at  Canterbury  sometime  before  that  date,  and  adds 
that  English  translations  of  some  of  them  still  remained. 
However,  all  of  them  seem  now  to  be  lost.  Of  legendary 
character  is  a  Vision  of  Leofric,  Earl  of  Mercia,  which  has 
by  chance  survived.  This  curious  document,  in  suffi- 
ciently correct  West  Saxon,  gives  in  reality  an  account  of 
more  than  one  supernatural  manifestation  to  Earl  Leo- 
fric, as  well  as  some  statements  as  to  his  holy  manner  of 
life.  Most  interesting  is  his  vision  of  the  bridge  of  souls: 
a  borrowing  from  the  Vision  of  St.  Paul,  which  was  to  be 
popularized  in  Middle  English  times.  Oddly  enough, 
Leofric  was  shown  St.  Paul  in  priest's  garb,  conspicuous 
among  the  white-clad  throng  of  the  blessed.    With  regard 

1  For  my  knowledge  of  these  legends,  as  well  as  of  the  St.  Michael 
above  mentioned,  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Napier,  whose  transcripts 
I  have  read. 


TROSE  LEGENDS  BEFORE  THE  CONQUEST     127 

to  all  of  this  we  have  no  further  knowledge.  The  dearth 
of  lives  of  English  saints,  indeed,  is  but  emphasized  by 
the  existence  of  a  Life  of  St.  Neot,  about  the  date  of  which 
there  is  much  doubt.  Not  even  Dr.  W.  H.  Stevenson,  who 
has  sufficiently  accounted  for  the  intrusion  of  this  Latin 
legend,  with  its  famous  story  of  the  burned  cakes,  into 
Asser'a  Life  of  King  Jilfrcd,  has  altogether  explained  the 
relation  of  the  English  Life  of  St.  Neot  to  the  Latin  lives. 
Without  much  doubt,  however,  he  is  right  in  dat-  (T  all 
of  them  after  the  Norman  Conquest.  The  border-line 
between  legends  written  before  and  after  that  invr  ion 
is  as  difficult  to  draw  as  in  the  case  of  other  literary  works. 
The  changes  that  came  about  were  not  immediately 
operative,  nor  was  the  English  vernacular  immediately 
discredited  as  a  literary  medium. 


CHAPTER  V 

NEW  INFLUENCES:  FRANCE  AND  THE  CULT  OF     HE 

VIRGIN 

ROFOUND  as  had  been  the  influence  of  the 
Scandinavian  invasions  upon  English  life  dur- 
ing the  centuries  that  preceded  the  Norman 
Conquest,  they  had  been  in  their  effects  re- 
acti»nary  rather  than  progressive.  They  enriched  the 
island  with  good  blood,  contributed  useful  materials  to 
tradition  and  important  elements  to  the  racial  inheritance; 
but  they  retarded  the  advance  of  civilization  by  the 
havoc  they  wrought  upon  establishments  of  learning  and 
religion.  We  have  seen  how  England  was  pulled  back  into 
semi-barbarism,  into  abject  ignorance  certainly,  during 
the  ninth  century  and  again  during  the  tenth.  After  the 
Benedictine  Reform,  however,  there  was  no  further  re- 
lapse, nor  were  the  islanders  ever  again  cut  off  from  the 
religious  and  intellectual  life  of  the  Continent.  Isolation, 
during  the  Middle  Ages  at  least,  jeopardized  both  re- 
ligion and  learning;  only  by  keeping  within  hail  of  their 
fellows  could  the  teachers  of  the  Germanic  world  hold 
themselves  steady  against  the  tide.  Thus  England  may 
be  counted  fortunate  to  have  had  done  with  the  sea- 
rovers  at  a  time  when  affairs  of  Church  and  state  in 
Europe  at  large  were  shaping  themselves  for  advance. 
Dunstan  and  his  coadjutors,  by  their  introduction  of  the 


NEW  INFLUENCES  120 

rule  of  Floury,  established  a  connection  with  France  that 
the  not  very  religious  or  learned  dukes  of  Normandy  were 
to  strengthen  in  the  following  century. 

Long  before  the  Conquest,  England  was  thus  deeply 
affected  by  French  influences  on  her  ecclesiastical  and 
educational  systems.  The  decadence  of  the  kingdom  of 
Wessex  and  the  political  and  economic  conditions  that 
led  to  the  expedition  of  William  of  Normandy  do  not  here 
concern  us  save  in  one  respect:  they  were  marked  by  a 
steady  and  apparently  increasing  tendency  on  the  part 
of  the  clergy  of  England  and  France  to  regard  themselves 
as  friends  and  allies.  After  the  Conquest  the  substitu- 
tion of  French  prelates  for  men  of  native  birth  was  only 
part  of  the  Norman  policy  of  control,  but  it  served  to 
strengthen  the  bond  between  the  English  and  Gallican 
(  'hurches.  For  the  time  being,  of  course,  the  intrusion  of 
foreigners  was  bitterly  resented.  Numerous  records  of 
quarrels  between  abbots  and  monks  show  the  difficulties 
that  arose;  and  there  is  evidence  of  the  contempt  with 
which  triumphant  prelates  from  the  Continent  treated 
native  institutions  and  native  saints.  Nor  could  it  have 
been  an  incentive  to  general  piety  that  Norman  clerks 
found  careen  open  to  them  on  English  soil,  while  the  na- 
clergy  were  held  in  subjection.  Yet  the  influence  of 
such  abbeys  as  Bayeux,  Bee,  and  Caen  was  doubtless,  in 
the  end,  an  excellent  tonic  for  the  religious  establish- 
ment* of  the  island. 

The  influence  was,  however,  by  no  means  one-sided. 
In  some  respects  the  English  Church  had  long  fulfilled 


130  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

its  religious  and  educational  duties  more  satisfactorily 
than  its  Gallican  sister.  No  other  conclusion  can  be 
drawn,  it  seems  to  me,  from  the  early  rise  of  a  religious 
literature  in  the  vernacular  on  English  soil  as  compared 
with  the  later  development  of  such  works  on  the  Conti- 
nent. The  history  of  legend-writing,  in  particular,  had 
been,  as  we  have  seen,  both  long  and  illustrious.  Con- 
trast with  it  the  tardy  beginnings  of  saints'  lives  in 
French.  _  _ 

A  single  manuscript  preserves  a  life  of  St.  Leger,  and  a 
Passion  and  a  rude  translation  of  a  sequence  to  the 
honor  of  St.  Eulalia,  dating  from  the  tenth  century;  a 
Yie  de  St.  Alexis  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  eleventh. 
Aside  from  these  works,  the  history  of  French  legends 
begins  only  after  the  year  1100.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
Passion  of  St.  Quentin  was  translated  into  English  during 
the  second  half  of  the  tenth  century.  The  earliest  life  of 
the  saint  in  French,  though  he  was  a  martyr  of  Amiens, 
was  not  composed  till  the  thirteenth  century.  One  must 
bear  in  mind,  to  be  sure,  that  the  oldest  document  in 
any  Romance  tongue  is  the  record  of  the  Oaths  of  Stras- 
burg,  exchanged  in  842;  but  the  Church  in  France  does 
not  seem  to  have  realized,  until  a  century  later,  that  the 
vernacular  might  be  used  to  advantage  as  a  vehicle  of 
instruction.  In  England,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Church 
had  early  seized  the  opportunity  to  widen  its  influence 
by  making  a  literature  for  the  unlearned.  The  early 
written  literature  of  the  English  would  have  been  far 
less  important  than  it  was,  without  much  doubt,  had  not 


NEW  INFLUENCES  131 

the  clergy  from  the  days  of  Ealdhelm  and  Bede  been  so 

zealous  for  the  instruction  of  laymen  through  the  use  of 
the  vulgar  tongue.  Perhaps  the  very  gradual  develop- 
ment of  the  Romance  speech  from  the  Latin  vernacular 
accounts  for  the  difference.  In  England  two  apparently 
unrelated  languages  were  employed,  which  might  make 
the  need  of  a  popular  literature  more  evident.  Be  that 
a-^  it  may,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  close  rela- 
tionship resulting  from  the  Norman  Conquest  stimulated 
the  production  in  France  of  legends,  at  least,  in  a  tongue 
that  could  be  understood  by  all.  In  this  fashion  England 
may  be  considered  to  have  repaid  very  early  her  vast 
literary  debt  to  her  continental  neighbor. 

This  debt  was  contracted  cheerfully  and  in  lavish 
measure.  Latin  hagiographers  from  the  earliest  period 
of  their  activity  in  the  West  had  been  as  busy  in  France 
as  elsewhere.  Gregory  of  Tours  was,  for  example,  famous 
throughout  Europe,  and,  naturally,  in  England.  Literary 
chauvinism,  we  must  remember,  is  a  product  of  modern 
times.  Like  every  one  else,  the  English  borrowed  quite 
frankly  the  cults  and  legends  of  foreign  saints.  After  the 
Conquest,  however,  when  the  Normans  became  leaders  of 
Church  a>  well  as  of  stale,  there  was  a  marked  increase  of 
foreign  influence.  Though  prelates  may  sometimes  have 
scoffed  at  English  cults,  Norman  clerks,  with  the  vigor 
characteristic  of  their  race,  soon  began  to  write  the  lives 
of  both  foreign  and  native  saints  in  their  vernacular  as 

will  as  in  Latjn.  The  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
wen-  the  period  when  llie  An^bi  Norman  legend  chiefl) 


132  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

flourished;  and  during  the  first  part  of  that  time  it 
smothered,  though  it  did  not  quite  kill,  the  legend  in 
English.  Then  came  about  the  amalgamation  of  con- 
querors with  the  conquered.  The  thirteenth  century, 
when  the  French  writers  of  England  were  most  occupied 
with  legends  —  the  marvellous  thirteenth  century,  with 
its  passion  for  scholarship  and  religion  as  well  as  for  the 
shows  of  the  world  —  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era  in  the  production  of  English  lives  of  saints.  As  we 
shall  see,  however,  the  Middle  English  legend  differed  in 
several  respects  from  the  pre-Conquest  type;  and  it  dif- 
fered along  lines  established  by  the  Norman  clerks.  Form 
and  spirit  were  alike  affected,  although  in  the  latter  par- 
ticular the  change  was  due  as  much  to  the  temper  of  the 
times  as  to  Norman  influence. 

In  some  ways,  of  course,  Anglo-Norman  legends  belong 
to  the  history  of  the  type  in  England  quite  as  much  as  do 
those  in  the  native  tongue.  The  spectacle  presented  is 
that  of  a  bi-lingual  country  in  which  the  ultimately  domi- 
nant literature  was  for  the  time  being  under  the  tutelage 
of  the  literature  that  was  destined  gradually  to  disappear. 
It  is  necessary,  then,  that  in  considering  saints'  lives  in 
English  we  take  the  French  product  into  account  at  least 
in  so  far  as  it  moulded  English  forms.  Unhappily  Ro- 
mance scholars  have  as  yet  paid  so  little  attention  to  the 
genre,  even  by  way  of  editing  texts,  that  anything  more 
than  a  summary  sketch  of  Anglo-Norman  legends  could 
be  attempted  only  after  a  prolonged  study  of  manuscripts 
such  as  my  special  interest  in  English  legends  has  not  yet 


NEW  INFLUENCES  133 

permitted  me.  Without  the  admirable  bibliography  of 
saints'  lives  in  French  recently  published  by  M.  Paul 
Meyer  in  the  Histoire  littcraire  dc  la  France,  to  which  I 
am  much  indebted,  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  even 
to  estimate  the  extent  to  which  the  type  was  cultivated 
in  Anglo-Norman  England. 

It  was,  without  doubt,  the  same  impulse  that  led  the 
Normans  to  write  vejse  romances  and  verse  legends. 
Both  types  were  intended  for  recitation  or  chanting; 
and  both  depended,  for  their  charm,  upon  loosely  woven 
incidents  centring  in  a  hero  or  heroine.  They  held  the 
interest  of  the  auditor,  generally  speaking,  not  as  did  the 
epic,  because  the  story  was  modelled  into  unmistakable 
coherence,  but  by  the  beauty  or  power  of  the  individual 
situation.  Whoever  reads  either  the  romances  or  the 
legends  of  the  later  Middle  Ages,  expecting  other  narra- 
tive qualities  than  these,  will  find  them  both  dull  and 
barl  >arous.  Situations  and  characters  are  highly  idealized, 
though  passages  of  crudely  realistic  description  are  not 
infrequently  found.  The  talcs  of  various  origin  underly- 
ing the  romances  lent  themselves  to  this  treatment  with 
the  same  facility  as  legends.  The  resulting  works  were 
addressed  to  the  same1  audiences  in  many  cases,  no  doubt. 
A  thirteenth  century  summary  of  penances,  relying  upon 
the  authority  of  Pope  Alexander  III,  excepts  from  the 
reprobation  of  the  Church  such  jongleurs  as  "sing  the 

deeds  of  princes  and  the  lives  <>f  saints."  Probably  the 
legends  had  a  wider,  if  not  more  numerous,  circle  of  ad- 
mirers than  the  romances,  for  they  were  beloved  in  con- 


134  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

vent  as  well  as  in  castle.  All  through  the  period  of  their 
popularity,  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  centuries, 
the  reciprocal  relations  of  the  two  types,  verse  romance 
and  verse  legend,  were  intimate,  and  their  effects  on  one 
another  important.  So  much  can  be  said  with  assurance, 
although  the  limits  of  the  relationship  have  not  yet  been 
clearly  marked.  The  legend  of  Si.  Eustace,  as  I  showed 
some  years  ago,  gave  rise  to  a  group  of  romances;  Pro- 
fessor Bruce  has  on  two  occasions  pointed  out  the  influ- 
ence of  the  strange  legend  of  Pope  Gregory,  with  its  sug- 
gestions of  CEdipus,  upon  the  Arthurian  cycle;  and  other 
borrowings  of  romance  from  legend  are  not  far  to  seek. 
There  was,  it  would  seem,  a  shuttle-like  movement  of 
material  between  the  two  genres.  In  a  similar  way,  their 
topographical  and  linguistic  relationships  are  involved 
and  somewhat  obscure.  Whether  they  were  written  in 
French  or  in  English  makes  little  difference,  except  that 
the  form  they  took  was  established  by  poets  who  used 
the  Romance  tongue. 

The  body  of  Anglo-Norman  legends  in  verse  is  remark- 
able. We  have  preserved  to  us  something  like  seventy- 
five  poems  in  French,  written  on  English  soil,  dealing 
with  the  lives  or  miracles  of  about  fifty  different  saints  or 
biblical  characters.  This  indicates  an  extraordinary  ac- 
tivity in  production,  as  well  as  a  genuine  interest  in  the 
type  on  the  part  of  a  very  considerable  audience.  The 
materials  of  most  of  the  poems  were  taken  from  what 
we  may,  without  impropriety,  call  the  common  legendary 
stock.  If  we  are  justified  in  drawing  any  conclusion  from 


NEW  INFLUENCES  135 

surviving  specimens,  as  seems  reasonable,  we  may  believe 
that  the  life  of  St.  Margaret  caught  the  popular  fancy 
more  completely  than  any  other  legend.  We  possess  no 
fewer  than  seven  versions  of  her  martyrdom,  all  but  one 
of  them  written  before  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Poems  based  on  the  various  apocryphal  histories  of  Christ 
are  scarcely  less  numerous,  while  each  of  several  other 
sacred  figures  is  celebrated  in  two  or  more  independent 
poems.  At  least  six  saints  of  the  English  and  British 
Churches  before  the  Conquest  were  honored  in  verse 
lives  by  Norman  clerks:  the  proto-martyr  Alban,  Audrey 
(or  Etheldrcda)  the  foundress  of  Ely,  King  Edmund 
of  East  Anglia,  Edward  the  Confessor,  the  Irish  virgin 
Modwenna,  and  the  virgin  martyr  Osith  of  Essex,  who 
perished  in  the  ninth  century.  Two  lives  of  Edmund, 
indeed,  are  extant,  and  three  of  Edward  the  Confessor. 
Aside  from  these  works,  there  is  a  version  of  the  marvel- 
lous voyage^  of  St.  Brendan,  while  five  different  adapta- 
tions of  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick  by  Henry  of  Saltrey 
are  known  to  have  been  made  by  Anglo-Norman  writers, 
the  earliest  being  that  done  by  Marie  de  France  towards 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  not  long  after  the  com- 
position of  the  original  work.  As  was  natural,  there  were 
written  also  lives  of  the  great  princes  of  the  Norman 
Church,  Thomas  and  Edmund  of  Canterbury  and  Richard 
of  Chichester.  One  of  the  poems  on  the  martyrdom  of 
St.  Thomas,  that  by  Gamier  de  Pont  Sainte-Maxence, 
though  not  written  in  the  Anglo-Norman  dialect,  WBB 
composed  shortly  after  the  archbishop's  assassination  and 


136  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

has  independent  historical  value,  since  the  author  came 
from  France  to  Canterbury  and  gathered  his  information 
there. 

The  writers  of  these  legends  were,  however,  for  the 
most  part  natives  or  residents  of  England,  as  far  as  we 
know  them.  Some  of  them,  like  Wace,  who  wrote  lives 
of  St.  Margaret  and  St.  Nicholas  as  well  as  a  double  poem 
on  La  fete  de  la  conception  Notre-Dame  and  Uhistoire  des 
trois  Maries,  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  were 
otherwise  well  known  as  authors.  Adgar,  towards  the  end 
of  the  same  century,  included  several  lives  of  saints  in  his 
collection  of  Mary  legends;  and  in  the  early  fourteenth 
century  Nicole  Bozon,  who  made  an  interesting  book  of 
conies  devots,  was  a  prolific  writer  of  saints'  legends  in 
verse.  It  is  a  suggestive  indication  of  the  audiences  ad- 
dressed that  a  considerable  number  of  the  poems  were 
composed  at  the  request  of  high-born  ladies,  just  as 
romances  were  often  dedicated  to  noble  patrons.  So 
Benoist  wrote  the  early  Vie  de  saint  Brendan  at  the  de- 
mand of  Adela,  the  Queen  of  Henry  I;  and  two  anony- 
mous authors  composed  lives  of  Edmund  Rich  and  Edward 
the  Confessor  for  a  countess  of  Arundel  and  Queen  Eleanor, 
the  wife  of  Henry  III,  respectively.  Legends  were  some- 
times, at  least,  the  work  of  monks  and  nuns,  for  we  have 
preserved  a  Vie  de  sainte  Foi  by  Simon  de  Walsingham 
of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  a  Gregoire  le  Grand  by  Anger  of 
St.  Frideswide's  at  Oxford,  and  a  Catherine  d'Alexandrie 
by  Clemence,  a  nun  of  Barking,  as  well  as  a  Vie  de  seint 
Auban  by  an  unknown  monk  of  St.  Albans. 


NEW  INFLUENCES  137 

Most  of  the  Anglo-Norman  legends  in  verse  were  writ- 
ten in  octosyllabic  rhyming  couplets,  a  form  beloved  by 
romancers  also  and  borrowed  by  Middle  English  poets. 
Other  metres,  sporadically  used,  were  alexandrines  with 
varying  schemes  of  rhyme,  a  combination  of  decasyllab- 
ics with  alexandrines  in  couplets,  octosyllabic  quatrains 
monorhymed,  and  tail-rhyme  stanzas  of  six  lines.  The 
variety  of  these  forms,  together  with  the  great  prepon- 
derance of  octosyllabic  couplets,  must  be  noted,  since  the 
Norman  poets  were  responsible  for  the  metrical  fashions 
in  vogue  among  English  writers  during  the  whole  period 
opened  by  the  Conquest. 

Besides  the  individual  legends  mentioned  above,  the 
Anglo-Normans  possessed  a  translation  in  verse  of  two 
books  of  the  liter  Patrum.  It  was  made  in  the  thirteenth 
century  by  a  templar  of  Bruer  Temple  in  Lincolnshire, 
who  was  likewise  the  author  of  poems  on  the  Antichrist 
legend  and  the  Vision  of  St.  Paul.  Like  ^Elfric,  he  judged 
parts  of  his  original  to  be  ill-adapted  for  the  knowledge 
of  laymen  and  used  his  discretion  in  omitting  various 
incidents.  He  was  not  an  accomplished  man  of  letters, 
a>  is  shown  by  the  awkwardness  of  his  style  and  the  ir- 
regularity of  his  alexandrines;  but  his  work  possesses 
extrinsic  interest  as  representing  the  only  attempt,  so 
far  as  is  known,  to  make  a  straightforward  translation  of 
any  considerable  part  of  the  Vitoe  Patrum  into  French 
verse. 

Unlike  the  legends  in  verse,  (lie  French  lives  of  saints 
in  prose,  the  composition  of  which  began  in  the  early 


138  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

O 

thirteenth  century,  soon  came  to  be  collected  into  groups. 
Whether  or  not  separately  written,  most  of  them  have 
been  preserved  to  us  only  in  these  collections,  arranged 
either  in  something  like  hierarchical  order  or  according 
to  the  calendar.  As  far  as  present  knowledge  goes,  the 
legendaries  with  an  arrangement  according  to  the  cal- 
endar were  confined  to  the  mainland,  while  the  prose 
lives  that  circulated  among  the  Normans  in  England 
were  all  contained  in  collections  with  the  hierarchical 
arrangement.  Four  of  these  legendaries,  allied  in  content 
or  identical  with  works  produced  in  France,  are  known 
to  have  been  made  in  England.  They  were  manifestly 
intended  for  private  reading,  and  for  that  only,  by  persons 
seeking  instruction  and  edification.  They  possess,  indeed, 
more  hagiographical  than  literary  interest,  although  they 
doubtless  gave  their  early  readers  a  certain  form  of 
pleasure.  The  influence  probably  exerted  by  them  on  the 
arrangement  of  one  of  the  English  legendaries  to  be 
treated  in  the  next  chapter  is  the  excuse  for  my  emphasis 
on  them  here. 

Another  collection  that  must  be  mentioned  for  the 
same  reason  is  a  huge  work  in  verse,  written  about  1250. 
This  is  the  Miroir  or  Evangiles  des  Domees  by  Robert  de 
Gretham,  who  was  probably  likewise  the  author  of  an 
explanation  of  the  sacraments  in  verse,  entitled  Corset, 
which  he  dedicated,  as  chaplain,  to  his  lord  Alain.  The 
Miroir  was  dedicated  to  a  Lady  Aline,  presumably  the 
wife  of  Alain.  The  book  is  of  portentous  length,  run- 
ning to  more  than  twenty  thousand  verses  in  octosyllabic 


NEW   INFLUENCES  139 

rhyming  couplets.  Beginning  with  the  first  Sunday  in 
Advent,  it  contains  homilies  for  the  entire  course  of  the 
dominical  year,  and  for  certain  great  feast-days.  Each 
homily  consists  of  a  paraphrase  of  the  gospel  appointed 
for  the  day  and  an  explanation  of  it  in  the  analogical 
style  of  exposition  then  in  vogue  among  preachers.  About 
a  quarter  of  the  sermons  are  diversified  by  the  addition 
of  narratives  more  or  less  vaguely  illustrative  of  the 
homiletic  matter.  These  stories,  which  ally  the  work  to 
such  legendaries  as  /Elfric's  first  collection,  arc  for  the 
most  part  simple  conies  devots,  religions  wonder-tales 
without  addition  of  place  or  name.  Four  of  them,  how- 
ever, may  be  classed,  as  I  have  found  from  an  examina- 
tion of  the  still  unpublished  manuscripts,  among  legends 
proper.  There  is  an  incident  from  the  miracles  of  St. 
Cecilia,  the  1'i.vum  of  Fur.scus,  an  account  of  the  conver- 
sion of  Thais,  and  an  adventure  of  the  hermit  Maeharius, 
the  last  two  from  the  Vitce  Patrum.  On  the  whole, 
Robert's  work  has  no  great  literary  merit;  but  his  flowing 
octosyllabic  verse  is  not  unpleasant,  while  his  paraphrases 
of  incidents  from  the  New  Testament  and  his  other 
stories  are  well  managed.  The  influence  probably  excited 
by  the  Miroir,  as  we  shall  later  see,  on  one  of  the  most 
popular  collections  of  religious  verse  in  Middle  English 
gives  it  peculiar  interest  in  the  history  of  our  native 
legends. 

Along  with  the  production  of  saints'  Uvea  in  the  Anglo- 
Norman  tongue,  the  writing  of  Latin  legends  went  on 
unchecked.  Although  they  made  no  innovations  in  mat  Icr 


140  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

or  treatment  that  clearly  differentiated  their  work  from 
that  of  the  pre-Conquest  hagiographers,  the  learned 
authors  of  the  late  eleventh  and  the  twelfth  centuries 
were  so  prolific  that  they  caused  the  earlier  lives  to  be 
pretty  much  forgotten.  In  part  they  simply  recast  these 
legends  in  a  new  and,  to  their  minds,  more  elegant  form; 
in  part  they  were  occupied  in  writing  lives  of  saints  who 
had  been  their  contemporaries.  The  latter  works  natur- 
ally have  more  historical  worth  than  the  others,  and  they 
also  have  more  interest.  Indeed,  they  compare  favorably 
with  the  best  biographical  legends  of  all  ages.  The  saints 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  bore  a  large  share 
in  the  stirring  movements  of  the  time,  religious,  intel- 
lectual, and  political;  they  were  keenly  alive;  and, 
whether  more  absorbed  in  learning  or  in  exalted  medita- 
tion, in  combating  secular  aggression  or  ecclesiastical 
weakness,  they  appear  to  us  in  the  pages  of  their  memo- 
rials attractively  human.  Their  devoted  followers,  who 
thus  pictured  them,  gave  evidence  of  a  spirituality  and 
an  acuteness  of  mind  that  were  sometimes  united  in  those 
fortunate  ages.  A  few  works,  composed  by  outstanding 
hagiographers  or  dealing  with  remarkable  figures,  may 
be  mentioned  to  show  the  drift  of  the  Latin  legend  in 
England. 

At  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  the  fluent  Goscelin 
was  perhaps  the  best-known  writer  of  saints'  lives  on  the 
island.  He  was  brought  to  England  by  a  bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, probably  only  a  few  years  before  the  Conquest,  and 
he  celebrated  the  deeds  of  several  saints  of  the  native 


NEW  INFLUENCES  141 

Church  in  Latin  which  is  gracefully  ornate,  if  not  in  the 
best  possible  style.  To  him  we  owe  lives  of  Augustine 
of  Canterbury,  Swithin,  Werburgh,  Mildred  of  Kent,  Edith, 
and  Ives,  all  of  which  enjoyed  great  and  lasting  renown. 
Eadmer,  a  younger  contemporary  of  Goscelin  and  a 
native  Englishman,  is  best  known  for  his  three  works  on 
St.  Anselm,  the  great  and  lovable  archbishop  who  ruled 
Canterbury  from  1093  till  1109.  Eadmer  was  the  chap- 
lain of  his  hero  and  wrote  of  him  with  outspoken  loyalty 
and  affection.  He  succeeded  in  picturing  the  man  in 
colors  that  have  not  faded;  he  recounted  the  saint's  long 
controversy  with  the  secular  powers  with  strict  adherence 
to  the  truth  as  he  saw  it;  he  celebrated  Anselm's  merits 
and  miracles  with  sobriety  and  good  taste.  Less  praise 
can  be  given  his  other  lives  of  saints,  concerning  Dunstan, 
Peter  of  Canterbury,  Odo,  Oswald,  Wilfrid,  Edward  the 
( 'oufessor,  and  Bregwin  (mostly  revisions  of  earlier  works) ; 
but,  whenever  he  wrote  in  prose,  he  expressed  himself  in 
a  clear  and  simple  style  that  makes  his  work  pleasing  in 
contrast  to  the  turgidity  of  much  mediaeval  Latin. 

It  is  a  point  worthy  of  note  that  some  of  the  most 
Qlusl  rioiis  authors  of  the  learned  twelfth  century  regarded 
the  composition  of  saints'  lives  as  work  suitable  to  their 
talents.  So  St.  Ailred,  successively  abbot  of  the  Cister- 
cian monasteries  of  Revesby  and  Ricvaulx,  who  was  emi- 
nent both  BS  an  ecclesiastic  and  as  a  writer  of  religious 
and  historicaJ  treatises,  composed  lives  of  Ninian,  ('uth- 

brrt,  and  Edward  the  Confessor.    Greater  BS  an  historian 
than  Ailred  was  William  of  Malmesbury,  whose  De  (testis 


/ 


142  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Regum  Anglorum  gave  him  a  reputation  comparable  only 
to  that  of  Bede.  His  Vita  Aldhelmi  and  De  Gestis  Poniifi- 
cum  Anglorum  are  informed  by  the  same  spirit  as  his 
secular  histories:  they  show  an  abounding  vigor  and  a 
feeling  for  the  relationship  of  events  without  much  criti- 
cal sense.  John  of  Salisbury,  one  of  the  greatest  scholars 
of  the  Middle  Ages  and  by  far  the  most  accomplished 
Latinist  in  twelfth  century  England,  was  one  of  the  early 
biographers  of  St.  Thomas  Becket.  He  had  been  a  fellow 
student  of  Becket's  ih  Paris,  and  remained  devotedly 
attached  to  him  throughout  life,  though  he  did  not 
scruple  to  advise  him  in  the  plainest  terms.  Like  his 
earlier  life  of  St^Anselm,  John's  account  of  St.  Thomas 
is  brief;  and  it  was  similarly  designed  to  pave  the  way 
for  canonization.  To  us  in  the  twentieth  century  the 
attitude  of  the  great  humanistic  scholar  to  the  great 
churchman  is  perhaps  a  little  hard  to  understand.  He 
had  lived  on  the  most  intimate  terms  with  the  saint,  both 
during  the  days  when  Thomas  was  a  high-spirited  and 
ambitious  clerk  and  after  he  took  upon  himself  splendid 
austerities  as  defender  of  the  Church ;  yet  he  bore  witness 
with  undoubted  sincerity  of  belief  to  the  sanctity  of  his 
old  comrade,  and  accepted  without  question  the  miracles 
wrought  at  Canterbury.  His  nearness  to  the  man  did 
not  blind  him,  that  is,  to  the  significance  of  his  friend's 
career.  As  a  witness  for  the  merits  of  Thomas  and  for 
the  faith  of  his  century  he  has  equal  interest.  St.  Hugh 
of  Lincoln,  who  died  in  the  last  year  of  the  same  century, 
found  a  biographer  and  eulogist  in  another  famous  writer 


^^&$z 


;VV   INFLUENCES  143 

of  the  time,  Giraldus  Cajrnhrensis.  as  keen-sighted,  witty, 
and  bold  a  spirit  as  ever  lived.  He  knew  Bishop  Hugh 
intimately,  and  in  his  Vita  he  gave  a  striking  portrait  of 
the  noble  Carthusian  saint,  though  he  devoted  the  greater 
part  of  his  work  to  an  account  of  the  miracles  worked  at 
the  tomb.  His  intent,  like  John  of  Salisbury's,  was  doubt- 
less to  help  secure  canonization  for  the  fearless  and  out- 
spoken, yet  humble  and  holy  bishop. 

The  biographies  called  forth  by  the  deaths  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury  in  1170,  of  St.  Hugh  of  Lincoln  in 
1200,  and  of  St.  Edmund  of  Canterbury  in  lc240  deserve, 
indeed,  special  attention  because  of  the  light  they  throw 
upon  conditions  at  the  time.  Aside  from  the  French  poem 
on  Bccket  and  the  Vita  by  John  of  Salisbury,  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made,  there  were  written  by 
the  end  of  the  century  about  twenty  Latin  accounts  of 
the  life  or  the  martyrdom  and  miracles,  many  of  them 
dealing  with  both.  At  least  six  witnesses  of  the  assassina- 
tion in  Canterbury  Cathedral  set  down  in  writing  what 
they  saw.  We  thus  possess  almost  unparalleled  material 
for  a  critical  understanding  of  the  events.  Although 
these  works  give  reports  which  are  as  faithful  to  truth  as 
ocular  evidence  can  well  be,  they  arc  properly  classed  as 
legends:  they  display  the  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of 
their  authors   thai    makes   the  genre  a  definite   literary 

type.  They  have,  indeed,  something  of  the  interesl  pos- 
ed by  the  genuine  passions  of  the  early  martyrs.     St. 
Hugh  of  Avalon,  as  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  was  involved,  like 
Becket,  in  controversy  with  Henry  II,  though  he  dealt 


144  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

more  prudently  with  the  chastened  king.  Besides  the 
sketch  of  the  saint  by  Giraldus,  we  have  a  long  life  by  his 
chaplain  Adam,  who  was  later  Abbot  of  Eynsham.  About 
St.  Edmund  of  Abingdon  and  Canterbury,  who  died  in 
France  after  troubles  caused  by  the  weakness  of  Henry 
III  and  by  insubordination  within  the  Church,  we  learn 
from  several  contemporary  lives.  His  brother  Robert 
Rich,  his  chamberlain  Bertrand,  his  friend  Robert  Bacon, 
and  the  celebrated  chronicler  Matthew  Paris  all  wrote 
more  or  less  elaborate  accounts  of  him,  not  to  mention 
less  important  lives.  Holier  and  more  learned,  though 
just  as  militant  a  defender  of  the  Church,  Edmund  Rich 
was  as  characteristic  a  product  of  the  thirteenth  century 
as  was  Thomas  Becket  of  the  twelfth.  The  contemporary 
biographies  indicate  the  differences  of  temper  between 
two  ages  as  well  as  between  two  men. 

Of  quite  other  character  than  the  great  ecclesiastics 
who  contended  with  kings  was  St.  Gilbert  of  Sempring- 
ham,  who  during  the  reign  of  Stephen  founded  the  only 
monastic  order  that  ever  arose  in  England.  Simple  good- 
ness marked  him  as  a  man  above  others,  for  he  made  no 
account  of  his  birth  and  learning;  and  he  lived  a  hundred 
years  in  the  exercise  of  abstinence  and  charity.  Before 
his  death  he  had  built  thirteen  monasteries  for  his  order, 
which  remained  in  existence  until  the  Reformation.  A 
vita,  written  by  a  canon  of  Sempringham  who  had  known 
the  saint,  is  a  straightforward  narrative  of  his  career, 
without  extravagance,  without  embellishment  —  such  a 
biography  as  Gilbert  would  have  approved. 


NEW  INFLUENCES  145 

No  account  of  Latin  legends  written  in  England  after 
the  Conquest  should  omit  the  mention  of  two  visions, 
which  were  first  circulated  during  the  twelfth  century. 
To  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick  by  Henry  of  Saltrey  I  have 
already  alluded.  In  its  first  form,  written  towards  the 
end  of  the  century,  the  visit  of  a  certain  knight,  named 
Owein,  to  the  church  established  by  Patrick  above  an 
entrance  to  Purgatory  is  described  at  length.  It  is  per- 
haps impossible  for  us,  at  this  day,  to  estimate  how  far 
literal  belief  in  the  vision  was  carried;  but  it  is  clear  that 
Henry  of  Saltrey  intended  to  write  something  more  than 
an  idle  tale  or  an  allegorical  exercise.  Even  less  so- 
phisticated is  the  Vision  of  a  Monk  of  Eynsham,  written 
by  the  same  Adam  who  composed  the  Magna  Vita  of 
Hugh  of  Lincoln.  In  1196  a  young  religious  of  Eynsham 
lay  for  thirty-six  hours  in  a  cataleptic  trance  and,  on 
recovering,  related  the  purgatorial  torments  that  he  had 
witnessed.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  Adam's  truthfulness, 
as  Father  Thurston  has  abundantly  proved:  he  set  down 
the  narrative  of  the  monk  as  he  heard  it.  Together,  the 
two  visions  just  mentioned  give  us  an  indispensable  un- 
derstanding  of  the  religious  feeling  in  England  at  the 
time.  The  enthusiasm  of  which  they  were  born  gave  the 
later  mediseval  legends  their  peculiar  character. 

The  influences  upon  the  saints'  lives  that  were  to  be 
written  in  Middle  English,  which  have  been  thus  far 
discussed  in  the  present  chapter,  were  largely  dependent 
on  territorial  and  political  conditions.  Forces  of  another 
kind  were  at  work,  however,  which  served  to  modify  the 


146  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

type,  both  on  the  island  and  on  the  Continent.  England 
lay  open  to  the  Church  universal  as  never  before,  and  she 
was  swayed  by  the  same  impulses  that  were  moving  Eu- 
rope as  a  whole.  The  enthusiasm  to  which  I  have  just 
alluded  found  expression,  between  the  tenth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries,  in  the  remarkable  development  of  the 
cult  of  the  Virgin,  which  influenced  legend-writing  as 
profoundly  as  it  touched  the  hearts  of  men.  Mary  had 
been  paid  the  highest  honors  by  the  Church,  to  be  sure, 
since  the  fifth  century  at  the  latest.  She  had  feasts  and 
dedications,  and  she  was  held  in  the  highest  reverence. 
Her  history  was  treated  with  epic  breadth  in  apocryphal 
gospels.  In  the  earlier  ages  of  the  Church,  however,  she 
had  never  fired  the  enthusiasm  of  the  faithful  as  she  did 
from  the  tenth  century  onwards.  In  curious  contrast  to 
later  visions  of  Mary  is  that  experienced  by  Wilfrid  of 
York  in  704,  as  recorded  by  his  biographer  ^Edde.  St. 
Michael  appeared  to  him,  bidding  him  build  a  church  in 
honor  of  the  Virgin.  After  the  year  1000,  at  the  latest, 
there  would  have  been  no  question  of  an  angelic  mes- 
senger: the  Virgin  herself  would  have  appeared.  In  Eng- 
land, as  well  as  in  Germany  and  France,  we  find  during 
the  tenth  century  an  increased  attention  to  the  cult.  So 
St.  Dunstan  devoted  himself,  we  are  told,  to  the  service 
of  the  Lord  and  of  Mary;  and  holy  men  everywhere  dedi- 
cated themselves  to  the  Mother  of  God.  This  tendency 
became  increasingly  marked  during  the  course  of  the  two 
centuries  following.  Poems  were  made,  more  frequently 
than  ever  before,  in  honor  of   the  Virgin.    From  their 


\ 


NEW  INFLUENCES  H7 

foundation,  at  the  very  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  the 
Cistercians  showed  peculiar  devotion  to  the  cult.  The 
institutes  of  the  general  chapter  held  in  1131  provided 
tl Kit  all  the  monasteries  of  the  order  should  be  dedicated 
to  the  Blessed  Mary;  and  all  their  seals  bore  her  image. 
The  movement  gathered  force  as  it  went,  until  at  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century  the  cult  became,  we  are  safe  in 
saying,  the  focal  point  of  worship.  To  the  Virgin  the 
hearts  of  all  believers  were  lifted  most  naturally  in  prayer; 
about  her  name  gathered  a  host  of  miracles  of  grace  and 
help.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  when  such  writings 
reached  their  highest  development,  the  Mary  legend  was 
the  centre  of  all  legends. 

The  increasing  mysticism  of  the  time  favored  the 
movement.  Though  fostered  by  great  men  like  St.  Ber- 
nard, it  was  really  a  product  of  the  same  forces  that  made 
theTeaders  of  the  Church  what  they  were.  Men  sought 
escape  from  the  world  or  plunged  into  the  pleasures  of 
the  world,  according  to  their  temperaments,  with  equal 
earnestness.  For  good  or  for  evil  they  were  greatly  alive. 
The  cult  of  the  Virgin  was  a  rival  to  the  cult  of  beauty 
that  came  in  with  the  age  of  romance.  It  represented  a 
reaction  against  the  worship  of  idealized  womanhood:  it 
was  the  Church  against  the  world.  Truly  there  was  no 
deliberate  attempt  to  substitute  the  one  for  the  other. 

Tin-  two  were,   to  some  degree,  the  result  of  the  same 

tendencies;  and  they  were  frequently  united,  or  con- 
founded, in  the  minds  of  their  followers.  Yet  though  they 
started  from  the  same  impulses,  they  looked  in  different 


148  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

directions,  the  one  towards  the  glorification  of  the  unseen 
power  of  God,  the  other  towards  the  glorification  of  His 
visible  works. 

The  Mary  legends  themselves  gave  a  loose  rein  to 
imagination  and  emotion.  They  were  a  stimulus  to  re- 
ligious feeling,  the  effect  of  which  can  scarcely  be  ex- 
aggerated. Though  they  augmented  the  tendency  to 
hysteria  that  was  undoubtedly  present  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  they  were  just  as  clearly,  in  their  best  form,  a 
help  to  godliness.  Along  with  the  religious  emotionalism 
went  a  tenderness  that  was  uplifting  and,  like  the  similar 
quality  in  the  knightly  ideal,  civilizing.  Consider  the 
legend  of  St.  Edmund  of  Canterbury,  recounted  in  the 
contemporary  life  by  Matthew  Paris.  While  a  youth,  Ed- 
mund plighted  his  troth  to  Mary  before  her  image  in  the 
church  and  in  the  presence  of  his  confessor.  "And  then 
he  suddenly  rose  up,  and  placed  a  ring  (which  he  had 
procured  for  this  purpose)  on  the  finger  of  the  statue,  and 
fitted  it  on,  saying,  'To  thee,  O  most  pure  Virgin  of  vir- 
gins, Mother  of  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  I  vow,  promise, 
and  consecrate,  the  gift  of  my  virginity.  With  this  ring  I 
plight  thee  my  troth,  and  gratefully  adopt  thee  for  my 
lady  and  spouse.'  .  .  .  And  after  his  prayer,  when  he 
wished  to  pluck  off  the  ring  which  he  had  placed  on  the 
finger  of  the  statue,  lest  it  might  be  the  cause  of  wonder- 
ment to  the  people,  he  was  not  able  to  do  so,  though  he 
tried  in  every  way  he  could."  It  matters  little  whether 
the  story  represents  any  real  spiritual  experience  of  the 
young  saint,  or  is  only  an  ancient  tale  in  a  new  setting; 


NEW   INFLUENCES  149 

the  effect  upon  legend  readers  would  be  the  same,  and 
altogether  for  good,  one  must  believe. 

Mary  legends  were,  of  course,  as  much  a  symptom  as 
an  influence.  They  indicated  the  excitement  of  the 
period,  which  found  expression  in  a  hundred  ways.  Poli- 
tics was  to  the  great  ecclesiastical  and  secular  rulers  an 
eager  struggle;  learning  was  to  scholars  a  pursuit  of  des- 
perate importance;  men  of  all  conditions  plunged  east- 
ward to  defend  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  wave  after  wave  of 
them,  never  counting  the  cost.  However  misdirected  may 
have  been  some  of  the  enthusiasms  of  the  later  Middle 
Ages,  there  is  no  hint  of  somnolence  in  those  centuries. 
Within  the  Church  itself,  Citeaux,  the  Grande  Chartreuse, 
Cluny,  and  Clairvaux  are  names  that  indicate  the  pre- 
vailing impulse  to  righteousness;  and  throughout  the 
thirteenth  century  the  orders  of  Dominic  and  Francis 
stirred  the  flame.  To  all  these  movements  Mary  legends 
are  an  index. 

Their  degeneration  shows  the  less  pleasing  aspect  of 
mediaeval  life,  for  it  again  is  characteristic.  While  the 
tendency  to  gather  marvels  about  the  figure  of  Mary  was 
><t  in  full  swing,  many  stories  of  a  most  unedifying  char- 
acter were  so  turned  as  to  celebrate  her  power.  They  did 
her  no  honor  and  disgraced  their  makers.  The  vast  col- 
lections of  legendary  anecdote  in  praise  of  the  Virgin, 

which  were  put  together  between  the  twelfth  and  fifteenth 
Centuries,  both  in  Latin  and  in  the  vernacular  literatures, 
contain  very  much  that  is  sordid,  a  good  deal  that  is 
frivolous,  and  not  a  little  that  seems  to  us  immoral  and 


150  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

blasphemous.  Tales  of  this  kind  came  from  a  variety  of 
sources,  but  were  chiefly  of  popular  origin;  they  sprang 
from  the  same  root  as  the  fabliaux;  they  exposed  the 
stratum  of  grossness  that  underlay  the  spiritual  aspiration 
of  the  period. 

For  better  and  for  worse  the  cult  and  legends  of  Mary 
influenced  profoundly  the  writing  of  saints'  lives  from 
the  twelfth  century  onwards.  Legends  in  Middle  Eng- 
lish, which  took  their  color  from  those  in  Latin  and  Anglo- 
French,  can  hardly  be  understood  without  reference  to 
the  movement  just  described.  Both  the  great  collections, 
which  are  next  to  be  considered,  and  the  individual 
legends,  through  which  the  general  course  of  the  type 
can  best  be  followed  between  1100  and  the  Reformation, 
are  different  from  the  corresponding  works  in  pre-Con- 
quest England  to  the  same  degree  that  manners,  ideas, 
and  aspirations  differed.  And  the  most  important  single 
factor  in  the  change  was  the  cult  of  the  Virgin. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION.     I 

LEGENDARIES,    AND    SAINTS'    LIVES    IN   WORKS   OF 
HISTORY    AND    EDIFICATION 

JlE  have  seen  how  /Elfric,  for  the  nurture  of  the 
people,  made  three  books  in  English,  nar- 
rating according  to  the  order  of  the  calendar 
the  lives  of  many  saints.  We  have  seen  that 
the  same  tendency  to  collect  legends  into  series  was  opera- 
tive among  the  Anglo-Normans,  who  set  the  literary 
fashions  for  England,  in  large  measure,  during  the  later 
Middle  Ages.  In  no  way,  perhaps,  can  we  so  well  ap- 
preciate the  extent  to  which  saints'  lives  were  cultivated 
and  the  part  they  played  in  the  literature  of  the  time  as 
by  a  survey  of  various  collections  in  the  English  tongue 
which  were  current  between  the  thirteenth  and  the  late 
fifteenth  centuries.  They  reveal  an  interest  in  the  type 
that  outran  the  power  of  expression,  for  the  most  part, 
but  an  interest  so  strong  that  an  understanding  of  it  is 
i  ssentia]  to  a  correct  estimate  of  the  temper,  religious, 
social,  and  literary,  of  that  interesting  age.  To  the  con- 
sideration of  these  scries  should  be  added  a  review  of  the 
-Mints'  lives  that  are  imbedded  in  the  chief  works  of  his- 
tory and  of  general  edification  that  were  written  in  the 
vernacular  during  the  same  period. 
l-  The  earliest  collection  in  Middle  English  is  that  coin- 


/ 


152  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

monly  known  to  scholars  as  the  South-English  Legendary, 
though  the  title  is  a  purely  modern  designation.  The 
work  is  a  composite  of  such  an  elaborate  nature  that  it  has 
baffled  the  few  attempts  yet  made  to  unravel  the  history 
of  its  compilation.  It  is  preserved  to  us  in  no  less  than 
twenty-nine  different  manuscripts,  sixteen  of  which  con- 
tain (or  once  contained)  complete  series  of  legends.  There 
is  so  much  variation,  moreover,  not  only  in  the  order  but 
in  the  actual  content  of  the  manuscripts  that  it  is  difficult 
to  determine  just  what  saints  were  treated  by  the  orig- 
inal compiler  and  what  he  intended  the  scope  of  the  work 
to  be.  The  difficulty  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  the 
oldest  manuscript  preserved  (Laud  108,  in  the  Bodleian 
Library)  gives  the  legends  without  any  attempt  to  put 
them  in  an  orderly  array.  On  this  account,  Dr.  Horst- 
mann,  the  learned  editor  of  this  version,  took  it  to  rep- 
resent the  original  state  of  the  legendary  before  comple- 
tion, a  rough  draft  of  materials  before  any  arrangement 
had  been  decided  upon.  This  does  not  seem  to  me  a  cor- 
rect statement  of  the  case.  The  Laud  MS.,  though  so 
early,  by  no  means  represents  fairly  the  original  text, 
according  to  Dr.  Horstmann's  own  admission.  Prob- 
ably it  is  nothing  more  than  a  random  selection  of  lives 
from  the  original  compilation,  and  of  more  value  as  show- 
ing what  the  legendary  included  before  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century  than  what  it  excluded. 

As  the  Laud  text  is  the  only  one  yet  edited  in  its 
entirety,  the  student  must  make  out  the  scope  and 
arrangement  of  the  work  from  tables  of  contents  and 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    153 

individual  legends  that  have  been  printed,  and  from 
an  examination  of  the  manuscripts  in  English  libraries. 
Until  several  more  texts  have  been  edited,  it  will,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  be  impossible  for  scholars  to  reach  very 
satisfactory  conclusions  about  the  genesis  and  the  grad- 
ual enlargement  of  the  book.  What  can  be  said  with  some 
degree  of  certainty  is  that  in  southern  England,  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century,  a  writer  (or  per- 
il a ps  a  group  of  monks)  undertook  to  versify  a  series  of 
saints'  lives  according  to  the  calendar  order  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical year.   In  the  words  of  the  Laud  prologue:  — 

Though  I  may  not  tell  of  all,  I  shall  tell  of  some, 
As  every  feast  after  other  in  the  year  doth  come. 

The  language  of  the  better  early  manuscripts,  like  Har- 
leian  2277  in  the  British  Museum,  points  to  southwestern 
England  as  the  region  where  the  collection  originated; 
and  the  double  use  of  certain  passages  in  the  Legendary 
and  in  the  chronicle  that  bears  the  name  of  Robert  of 
Gloucester  makes  it  appear  that  the  Abbey  of  Gloucester 
was  the  place  of  its  beginning.  To  the  vexing  question  of 
the  priority  of  Legendary  or  chronicle  I  must  return. 

At  the  moment,  it  is  more  important  to  notice  the 
metrical  form  and  the  content  of  the  earlier  versions  of 
the  Legi  nilnry.  The  legends  are  written  in  rhyming 
couplets,  prevailingly  with  seven  stresses  to  a  line,  like 
those  I  have  just  quoted  in  modernized  form.  The  scribe 
of  one  important  manuscript,  however,  tried  to  shorten 
the   verse    to   six    beats,    naturally    without   Conspicuous 


154  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

success.  His  attempt  illustrates  the  freedom  with  which 
the  work  was  handled  by  various  scribes  and  helps  to  ex- 
plain the  complexities  of  its  structure.  The  normal  line  of 
seven  beats  was  probably  an  adaptation  of  Old  English 
verse,  with  the  substitution  of  end-rhyme  for  alliteration. 
It  has  a  suppleness  and  a  fluency  that  the  older  verse 
for  the  most  part  lacks,  but  it  is  not  comparable  in  dig- 
nity and  poetic  beauty  with  the  medium  employed  by 
the  pre-Conquest  writers.  It  cannot  be  said,  moreover, 
that  the  makers  of  the  Legendary  had  a  mastery  of  lan- 
guage sufficient  to  give  their  rhythmical  effects  any  great 
importance  as  poetry.  The  excellences  of  what  they 
accomplished  lie  in  other  directions,  as  we  shall  see. 

The  purpose  of  the  compilation  in  its  first  state  is 
clearly  indicated  by  the  prologue  from  which  I  have  al- 
ready quoted:  it  was  intended  for  reading  in  conventual 
refectories,  as  well  as  privately  by  persons  desiring  to 
combine  pleasure  with  spiritual  profit.  I  have  stated  in 
the  previous  chapter  that  legends  and  romances  in  verse 
served  much  the  same  ends  and,  to  some  extent,  much 
the  same  audience.  As  romances  tended  to  gather  into 
cycles,  and  as  several  of  them,  even  when  unrelated  in 
subject-matter,  were  often  written  in  a  single  manuscript, 
so  it  was  natural  for  prosperous  abbeys  to  desire  a  series 
of  saints'  lives  in  convenient  and  accessible  form.  Patrons 
of  letters,  no  doubt,  sometimes  wished  such  a  collection 
for  their  own  use,  that  they  might  at  any  time  read  or  be 
read  to  concerning  the  life  of  the  saint  whose  day  it  hap- 
pened to  be.  The  assumption  that  the  compilation  which 


THE   CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    155 

we  arc  considering  was  ever  used  to  replace  sermons  in 
the  churches  on  the  festivals  of  the  saints  seems  to  me 
quite  baseless,  though  the  statement  has  been  frequently 
made  that  it  was  so  used.  With  regard  to  the  present 
work,  the  author  of  the  prologue  appears  virtually  to  con- 
tradict the  view.  "All  this  book  is  made,"  he  says,  "of 
holy  days  and  of  holy  men's  lives  ...  of  whose  lives 
when  their  feasts  fall,  men  read  in  holy  church."  He 
amalgamates,  furthermore,  with  his  prologue  a  brief  ac- 
count of  St.  Fabian,  which  could  not  possibly  have  been 
read  instead  of  a  sermon  because  of  its  excessive  brevity. 
Other  lives,  on  the  contrary,  are  related  at  such  great 
length  that  their  use  in  church  would  be  inconceivable. 
A  homiletic  discourse  must,  after  all,  be  limited  in  length. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  purpose  of  any  legendary  has  to 
be  determined  by  its  characteristics;  and  this  South- 
English  collection  was  clearly  intended  for  conventual 
and  private  use. 

The  work  in  its  original  form,  if  I  am  not  mistaken  in 
my  inferences,  consisted  of  between  ninety  and  a  hundred 
legends,  beginning  with  the  celebrations  of  the  Circum- 
eision  and  Epiphany  and  ending  with  the  festival  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury  on  December  SI.  It  included  lives 
of  the  most  celebrated  Celtic  and  Anglo-Saxon  saints; 
but  about  five-sixths  of  the  entries  are  for  days  observed 
throughout  the  Catholic  world,  whether  of  saints  or  of 
high  feasts  like  the  Annunciation  and  the  Assumption 
of  the  Virgin.  Because  of  the  variety  of  the  contents  and 

the  individual  treatment  of  the  stories,  it  is  impossible  to 


/ 


156  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

believe  the  work  to  be  anything  but  an  original  com- 
pilation from  a  number  of  different  sources.  At  the  same 
time,  any  well-stocked  monastic  library  might  easily  have 
furnished  the  materials  for  the  book.  On  this  score,  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  more  than  one  man  was  con- 
cerned in  translating  and  arranging  the  earliest  version  of 
the  work. 

The  contents  are  varied  by  the  inclusion  of  certain  pas- 
sages that  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  saints, 
but  serve  to  give  instruction  in  a  palatable  form.  Thus 
the  Life  of  Kenelm,  the  ninth  century  boy-king  and  mar- 
\  tyr  of  Mercia,  contains  an  elaborate  description  of  the 
political  divisions  of  England;  and  the  account  of  St. 
Michael's  contests  with  the  devil  leads  the  writer  into 
a  very  long  cosmology  similar  to  the  works  entitled  De 
Natura  Rerum  by  Isidore  of  Seville  and  Bede.  Occa- 
sionally, as  in  the  case  of  All  Saints'  and  All  Souls',  a 
familiar  homiletic  strain  enters,  though  the  discourse 
nowhere  takes  a  homiletic  form.  Two  passages  from 
All  Souls'  Day  I  shall  quote  in  a  rather  free  translation  to 
show  the  bludgeon-like  directness  of  the  work  when  it 
touches  abuses,  and  to  show  also  the  free  and  easy  move- 
ment of  the  verse  at  its  best.  The  writer  has  been  saying 
that  penance  should  be  measured  according  to  the  sin. 

He  goes  on :  — 

Therefore  should  one  bethink  him, 
And  to  a  foolish  priest  trust  not,  or  penance  wildly  laid. 
Forsooth,  or  here  or  elsewhere,  each  sin  shall  be  repaid. 
What?  How  is  then  of  Janekin  and  of  Robinet  the  wild. 
Of  Annot  and  of  Malekin  who  wish  the  priest  so  mild? 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     157 

And  they  say:  "This  priest  is  hard.   God  shield  us!   Have  no  fear! 

We'll  go  to  seek  Sir  Gilbert  priest.   He  never  is  severe, 

And  he  will  shrive  us  easily;  our  sins  shall  l>e  forgiven." 

By  God,  when  they  have  done  it  all,  home  they  go  unshriven. 

Again,  after  discussing  the  question  of  the  celebration  of 
mass  by  a  wicked  priest,  he  says:  — 

Hut  though  the  mass  be  none  the  worse,  by  my  neck,  the  priest 
Th;it  sings  it  thus  in  deadly  sin  shall  dearly  pay,  at  least! 
For  when  Sir  Gilbert  ends  the  mass,  his  life  will  he  so  dight 
To  be  in  taverns  all  the  day  and  with  his  quean  at  night. 
He  says,  when  any  calls  him  priest:  "Sit  still,  my  comrades,  6e! 
The  priest  is  hanging  in  the  church;  but  here,  just  now,  am  I." 
His  surplice  or  perhaps  his  cope  he  calls  the  priest,  you  see. 
But  he  shall  leave  his  cope  at  home,  when  he  goes  to  hell,  parde! 

Such  terse  phrasing  is  not  the  rule  throughout  the 
Legendary,  one  has  to  admit;  yet  I  am  unable  to  detect 
any  variation  in  manner  and  style  sufficient  to  indicate 
a  difference  in  authorship,  as  far,  that  is  to  say,  as  the 
texts  common  to  the  older  manuscripts  are  concerned. 
Whether  one  man  or  several  men  made  the  original  com- 
pilation, the  work  must  have  been  done  in  a  monastery. 
The  extracts  just  given  show  clearly  enough  the  author's 
lack  of  sympathy  with  the  secular  clergy,  while  monastic 
abuses  are  never  scored.  The  variety  of  sources  that  must 
have  been  used  again  points  to  a  conventual  library.  The 
method  of  narration  and  the  style,  as  far  as  they  have 
individuality  at  all,  tend  to  confirm  my  belief  that  the 
legends   were   translated    and    collected  for  the  use  of 
monks  ;md  of  laymen  who  desired  a  profitable  and  equally 
interesting  .substitute  for  the  current  romances  of  ad- 


158  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

venture.  Emphasis  is  laid  where  one  would  expect  in  such 
circumstances.  Thus  the  story  of  St.  Thomas  Becket,  the 
militant  hero  of  the  English  Church,  is  told  with  greater 
fulness  of  detail  than  any  other,  running  to  nearly  two 
thousand  and  five  hundred  verses.  It  is,  moreover,  per- 
haps rather  more  successful  than  any  of  the  other  lives. 
Again,  the  marvellous  voyage  of  St.  Brendan  and  the 
Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick,  both  of  which  can  vie  with 
romances  in  the  elements  of  popular  interest,  receive 
liberal  treatment  in  the  matter  of  space.  The  sensational 
adventures  attributed  to  the  apostles  John  and  Thomas, 
the  gruesome  history  of  St.  Clement,  no  less  than  the  ap- 
pealing biographies  of  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Edmund  of 
Canterbury,  are  related  at  great  length.  Indeed,  the 
treatment  of  these  romantic  stories  shows  considerable 
skill.  Though  the  style  is  without  dignity  or  what  we  call 
distinction,  the  movement  of  events  is  rapid  and  seldom 
clogged  or  obscure.  The  use  of  detail,  furthermore,  is 
picturesque,  just  as  it  is  in  the  better  romances.  The  dull 
parts  of  the  Legendary  are  those  in  which  the  writer  has 
summarized  the  lives  of  saints  very  briefly. 

The  likeness  to  romances  is  increased  by  the  conver- 
sations with  which  the  legends  are  plentifully  strewn. 
Quite  in  the  accepted  manner  of  romances  is  the  parleying : 
the  swift  exchange  of  rather  formal  speech,  the  courteous 
or  excessively  discourteous  use  of  epithets  of  address. 
The  last  point  is  one  to  be  noticed  in  connection  with  the 
authorship  of  the  work:  a  marked  mannerism  of  style  in 
the  legends  that  are  common  to  the  earlier  manuscripts 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    159 

is  the  use  of  French  phrases  of  salutation  or  exclamation. 
"Beau  sire,"  "beau  frere,"  "dieu  merci,"  and  such  cur- 
rent coin  of  language  occur  over  and  over  again,  along 
with  similar  English  phrases.  This  does  not  indicate,  to 
my  mind,  a  French  source  for  the  Legendary,  but  merely 
a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  writer  to  ape  the  manner 
of  secular  fiction. 

The  question  as  to  the  relationship  between  the  Leg- 
endary and  the  chronicle  popularly  known  as  Robert  of 
Gloucester's,  although  a  difficult  one,  as  I  have  already 
remarked,  is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  connection  with 
the  baffling  problem  of  the  authorship  of  the  legends. 
The  chronicle,  it  should  be  said  at  the  outset,  seems  to 
have  been  the  work  of  at  least  three  men.  Originally  it 
must  have  ended  with  the  reign  of  Henry  I,  but  it  was 
continued  by  two  different  men  in  two  different  ways  to 
the  year  1271.  The  first  of  these  continuators  called 
himself  Robert.  Further  than  the  facts  that  he  was  an 
eye-witness  of  the  battle  of  Evesham  in  1265  and  was  ob- 
viously well  acquainted  with  the  topography  of  Glouces- 
tershire, we  know  nothing  whatever  about  him.  He 
could  not  have  written  earlier  than  1297,  since  he  referred 
to  Louis  IX  as  having  been  canonized.  The  date  of  the 
third  writer  we  have  no  good  means  of  determining,  but 
We  may  suppose  that  he  lived  early  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  Apparently  a  certain  number  of  interpolations 
were  afterwards  made  in  tlie  earlier  part  of  the  chronicle 

by  still  another  Bcribe. 

Nun ,  as  before  stated,  there  an-  .several  passages  in  the 


160  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

chronicle  that  correspond,  line  for  line,  to  similar  pas- 
sages in  the  Legendary.   There  are  only  ten  saints,  let  me 
say,  of  whom  more  than  cursory  mention  is  made  in  the 
chronicle.  In  the  case  of  eight  of  them,  as  far  as  the  texts 
yet  edited  permit  one  to  judge,  there  is  more  or  less  paral- 
lelism to  the  accounts  in  the  Legendary.  Altogether,  there 
are  at  least  thirteen  passages  of  significance  to  the  prob- 
lem. Three  of  these,  adduced  by  the  editor  of  Robert  of 
Gloucester,  I  cannot  control  further  than  to  say  that  Mr. 
Aldis  Wright  seems  to  have  used  the  late  manuscript  of 
the  Legendary  in  the   library  of  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge, in  working  out  his  sources,  though  he  does  not 
name  it.   There  he  would  have  found  lives  of  Athelwold 
and  Alphege,  as  well  as  perhaps  a  longer  text  of  Dunstan 
than  those  yet  printed.   From  all  three  of  these  he  cites 
parallels.    Though  I  have  been  unable  to  consult  the 
Trinity  MS.,  the  fact  that  it  is  late  tends  rather  to  con- 
firm than  to  contradict  the  inferences  that  I  have  drawn 
from  the  other  ten  passages.  It  would  be  out  of  place  for 
me  here  to  present  the  evidence  in  detail.  Briefly  stated, 
the  situation  is  this :  the  description  of  Britain  in  the  life 
of  St.  Kenelm;  two  lines  in  the  life  of  St.  Wulstan  about 
events  during  the  Norman  Conquest;  a  couplet  in  the 
life  of  St.  Swithin,  giving  the  date  of  his  translation ;  and 
lines  giving  the  date  of  St.  Dunstan's  birth  and  an  ac- 
count of  his  recall  to  power  by  King  Edgar  appear  to  have 
been  taken  bodily  from  the  earlier  version  of  the  chronicle. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the 
chronicler  did  not  make  use  of  the  Legendary  in  his  ac- 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    161 

counts  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  and  of  St.  Kenelm's 
death.    The  reason  for  this  apparent  contradiction  be- 
comes clear,  however,  when  we  notice  that  the  two  latter 
passages  are  found  in  the  portions  of  the  chronicle  written 
by  the  continuators.   From  the  parallels  between  the  life 
of  St.  Edward  Martyr  and  the  account  of  him  in  the 
chronicle  I  can  draw  no  conclusion  save  that  they  may 
have  a  common  source.    Each  omits  many  verses  found 
in  the  other,  though  they  have  fifty-two  lines  in  common. 
If  my  interpretation  of  the  evidence  be  correct,  we  have 
this  state  of  affairs:  the  chronicle  was  first  written,  down 
through  the  reign  of  Henry  I;  certain  passages  from  it 
were  then  used  by  the  compiler  of  the  Legendary ;  and 
later  at  least  two  lives  from  the  latter  work  were  pillaged 
by  continuators  of  the  chronicle.    Furthermore,  since  we 
know  that  the  second  chronicler,  who  called  himself  Rob- 
ert, wrote  about  the  year  1300,  we  can  date  the  earliest 
form  of  the  Legendary  more  accurately  than  it  has  been 
possible  to  do  up  to  the  present.   Dr.  Horstmann's  guess, 
often  repeated  by  other  scholars,  that  it  was  composed  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  thirteenth  century  may  be  ac- 
cepted, with  the  caution,  merely,  that  we  cannot  yet  be 
sun-  of  the  terminus  a  quo.    I  regret  that  I  am  unable  to 
find  any  clear  evidence  as  to  whether  one  man  or  several 
wen-  eoneemed  in  compiling  the  Legendary  as  it  stood  at 
fir-t ;  and  I  do  nut  feel  prepared  even  to  express  an  opinion 
a>  to  whether  the  chronicler  and  any  legend-writer  wen- 
one. 

The  compiling  of  the  Legendary  did  not,  as  a  matter  of 


162  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

fact,  end  its  history.  No  one  of  the  many  manuscripts  to 
which  I  have  referred  agrees  altogether  in  content  with 
any  other.  The  freedom  with  which  scribes  inserted 
legends,  only  taking  care,  usually,  that  they  should  be 
written  in  what  might  pass  for  the  same  metre,  is  a  testi- 
mony to  the  extreme  popularity  of  the  collection.  Who 
translated  these  lives  we  do  not  know,  and  we  have  no 
means  of  knowing.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Mary 
Magdalene  in  the  oldest  extant  manuscript  and  of  the  As- 
sumption of  the  Virgin  in  one  of  the  youngest  manuscripts, 
we  find  that  an  older  poem  has  been  incorporated  into  the 
series.  The  Assumption,  indeed,  was  given  a  new  form  to 
make  it  fit  into  the  collection.  In  other  instances,  legends 
in  other  than  the  prevailing  metre  have  been  interpolated 
or  appended  without  any  attempt  to  change  their  form. 
Again,  eleven  of  the  manuscripts  contain  only  fragments  of 
the  work,  which  have  been  taken  out  of  their  setting  and 
copied  into  manuscripts  with  other  legends  or  with  poems 
of  quite  a  different  character.  Some  of  the  later  manu- 
scripts, moreover,  as  well  as  the  earliest  of  all,  do  not  give 
the  legends  in  calendar  order,  but  present  them  quite 
without  system.  Altogether,  no  more  tangled  skein  of 
relationship  was  ever  accomplished  by  the  tampering  of 
scribes,  even  when  they  had  to  do  with  a  work  of  edifica- 
tion. The  obvious  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  this  are 
that  the  scribes  had  no  sense  of  literary  property  and  that 
they  enjoyed  the  contents  of  the  book.  It  would  seem 
that  everyone  who  had  a  new  copy  of  it  made  must  have 
had  it  arranged  according  to  his  own  predilections.  If  one 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     1G3 

is  tempted  to  say  that  the  worth  of  the  compilation  as 
literature  is  measured  by  the  ease  with  which  new  legends 
were  inserted  among  the  old,  let  it  be  remembered  that 
the  additions  are,  generally  speaking,  less  vigorous  than 
those  lives  which  we  must  regard  as  forming  part  of  the 
original  collection.  It  was  easy  enough  to  write  a  legend 
that  followed  the  general  metrical  scheme.  Great  literary 
merit  the  work  does  not  possess,  in  its  best  estate,  but  it 
is  less  contemptible,  both  in  form  and  substance,  than 
much  of  the  ephemeral  writing  that  the  boasted  enlight- 
enment of  our  own  day  finds  tolerable.  The  continuous 
popularity  of  the  book  is  attested  by  its  growth  down  into 
the  fifteenth  century:  as  long,  that  is,  as  the  language  of 
it  could  be  read  without  difficulty. 

One  aspect  of  the  work  must  be  mentioned  in  con- 
elusion.  All,  or  nearly  all,  the  manuscripts  have  sections 
devoted  to  the  movable  and  immovable  feasts  of  the 
Church  year.  These  vary,  however,  both  in  number, 
length,  and  position.  Sometimes  the  story  of  Advent  is 
found  expanded  until  it  includes  not  only  a  Life  of  Our 
Lady  and  the  Processus  Prophet  arum  but  the  whole  Old 
Testament  history;  sometimes  the  Passion  is  appended 
to  a  Life  <>f  Christ.  In  some  of  the  manuscripts  the  appro- 
priate readings  for  the  high  festivals  are  given  their  place 
according  to  the  calendar,  but  in  the  majority  they  pre- 
cede the  lives  of  saints,  forming  a  more  or  less  complete 
temporale  which  corresponds  to  the  sandorale.  In  one  man- 
uscript they  stand  thus  as  a  separate  section  «»f  the  work, 
and  in  another  they  are  found  by  themselves,  without  tlie 


164  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

legends.  Whether  or  not  a  temporale  formed  part  of 
the  original  plan  for  the  book  cannot  be  determined  until 

0 

these  poems  have  been  printed  in  their  entirety  and  sub- 
jected to  close  study.  My  impression  is  that  they  were 
gradually  added  by  one  and  another  writer  and  that  they 
were  placed  in  a  section  by  themselves  only  when  they 
grew  to  the  size  of  a  separate  book.  The  fact  that  the 
manuscript  which  contains  the  temporale  by  itself  is  the 
only  one  with  a  complete  set  of  the  poems  seems  to  point 
in  that  direction. 

Of  a  less  complicated  development  in  some  respects 
than  the  great  compilation  just  discussed,  but  with  no 
fewer  difficulties  in  others,  is  the  North-English  Homily 
Collection.  Though  it  survives  in  fewer  manuscripts  than 
the  southern  series,  it  must  have  been,  we  must  believe 
from  the  intricacies  of  their  relationship,  scarcely  less 
popular.  Evidence  of  this  popularity  is  afforded  by  the 
fact  that  one  of  the  extant  manuscripts  was  written  in 
the  South  by  a  scribe  who  turned  the  whole  book  into 
the  speech  of  that  region.  Three  distinct  recensions  of  the 
work  have  been  traced;  and  the  later  ones  differ  so  much 
from  the  original  that  they  may  almost  be  regarded  as 
independent  books.  Originally,  as  is  shown  by  the  name 
which  I  have  applied  to  it,  it  was  not  intended  to  be  a 
collection  of  saints'  lives  at  all,  but  a  work  of  edification 
"of  cristes  dedes  and  his  sau."  The  Latin  title  in  one  of 
the  best  manuscripts,  which  may  be  translated  Sunday 
Gospels  for  the  Whole  Year  expounded  in  the  Vulgar 
Tongue,  is  excellently  descriptive,  if  cumbersome.    The 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    16*5 

author's  intention,  as  he  himself  states  it  in  his  prologue, 

is  plain:  — 

Forthi  tha  godspells  that  always 
Er  red  in  kirc  on  Sundays, 
Opon  inglis  wil  ic  undo. 

To  this  end  he  adopted  the  method  of  treatment  that  had 
become  by  the  thirteenth  century  the  stereotyped  form 
for  sermonizing,  very  largely  througli  the  influence  of  the 
preaching  Friars.  He  made  a  free  paraphrase  of  the 
stated  passage  from  the  Gospels;  he  gave  an  exposition 
of  its  meaning  according  to  the  analogical  fashion  of  the 
day;  and  he  told  a  story  by  way  of  illustration,  some- 
times a  very  elaborate  story.  All  this  he  cast  in  jogging 
couplets  with  four  beats  to  the  line,  like  the  verses  just 
quoted. 

lie  wrote  explicitly  for  the  unlearned,  though  not  ex- 
clusively for  them.  In  the  prologue  he  said:  "For  un- 
learned men  have  more  need  to  hear  God's  word  than  clerks 
who  look  in  their  Mirror  and  see  in  books  how  they  shall 
live.  And  both  the  clerk  and  the  unlearned  man,  born  in 
England  and  long  dwelling  therein,  can  understand  Eng- 
lish; but  all  men  cannot,  certainly,  understand  Latin  and 
French."  No  more  than  the  South-English  Legendary  was 
the  work  intended,  unless  I  misunderstand  the  prologue, 
to  be  read  in  church,  Sunday  by  Sunday.  "For  namely 
on  the  Sunday  e<»me  unlearned  men  to  the  church  to  say 
their  prayers  and  to  learn  spiritual  know  ledge,  \\  hich  they 
hear  then'.  For  as  greal  Deed  have  they  to  understand 
what  the  Gospel  means  as  have  learned  men.  .  .  .  Then-- 


166  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

fore  I  will  show  in  English  and  make  our  unlearned 
brother  know  what  all  the  Gospels  say  that  fall  to  the 
Sundays."  The  writer  meant,  I  think,  to  supplement  and 
not  to  supersede  ordinary  sermons  by  his  versified  homi- 
lies. As  is  the  case  with  the  southern  legends,  the  length 
of  some  of  the  discourses  (several  of  them  run  to  more 
than  a  thousand  lines)  makes  it  impossible  for  me  to 
believe  that  they  were  intended  for  reading  at  mass. 

The  varying  length  of  the  homilies  was  largely  due  to 
the  tendency  of  the  narrative  to  overbalance  the  other 
parts  of  the  discourse.  It  would  seem  that  the  maker  not 
only  regarded  the  stories  as  likely  to  interest  his  audience, 
but  himself  came  to  feel  a  disproportionate  interest  in 
them.  He  drew  upon  the  Bible  for  some  of  his  tales,  and 
at  least  seven  he  took  from  the  Vitce  Patrum;  others  he 
found  in  some  collection  of  Mary  legends;  but  in  nine 
cases  he  recounted  either  complete  lives  of  saints  or  inci- 
dents from  such  lives.  The  collection  thus  gathered  was 
a  miscellaneous  assortment  of  stories,  some  of  them  only 
vaguely  illustrative  of  the  texts  for  the  Sundays  in  ques- 
tion, yet  it  gave  the  reader  a  very  representative  selec- 
tion of  mediaeval  narrative.  The  subjects  and  the  quali- 
ties are  all  there,  though  turned  to  the  uses  of  practical 
piety:  adventures,  laughable  incidents,  quests  for  the 
unattainable.  If  some  of  the  stories,  to  the  modern  reader, 
seem  ill  calculated  to  serve  the  end  in  view,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  they  were  chosen  for  other  palates 
than  his,  and  for  other  ways  of  thinking.  The  author 
selected  what  would  captivate  his  audience,  whether  by 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    1G7 

way  of  conveying  somewhat  crudely  the  notion  of  spirit- 
ual aspiration  or  by  depicting  right  and  wrong.  Like 
J^lfric  before  him,  he  found  narrative  more  likely  to 
serve  his  purpose  than  exposition  pure  and  simple. 

He  had  a  model  for  his  work.  In  the  preceding  chapter 
I  have  referred  to  the  Mimir  or  Evangiles  des  Domees  by 
Robert  de  Gretham,  which  was  written  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Not  only  do  the  titles  and 
general  plans  of  the  two  books  correspond,  but  there  are 
various  passages  throughout  that  are  markedly  similar. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  unwise  to  argue  from  the  reference 
in  the  prologue  of  the  English  work  to  "clerks  who  look 
in  their  Mirror  and  see  in  books  how  they  shall  live" 
that  the  writer  knew  this  particular  Mirair.  "Speculum" 
was  not  an  uncommon  mediaeval  title.  Taken  in  con- 
nection with  other  evidence,  however,  the  reference  may 
not  be  without  value.  The  evidence  from  similarity  of 
plan  and  from  what  seems  to  be  adaptation  of  individual 
passages  I  have  space  to  summarize  only  briefly.  Both 
collections  began  with  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent  and 
ran  through  the  twenty-fourth  Sunday  after  Trinity. 
Although  there  is  considerable  variation  among  the 
manuscripts  of  the  two  works  as  to  the  order  of  the 
homilies  and  as  to  the  texts  for  particular  Sundays,  they 
have  a  common  peculiarity  in  the  gospel  they  assign  to 
the  fifth  Sunday  after  Epiphany,  which  accords  with  the 
Uses  neither  of  Sarum  nor  of  York.  Furthermore,  a  dozen 
homilies  in  each  collection  are  developed  in  thesame  way, 
either  a.s  B  whole  or  in  part.    As  far  as  they  run  parallel, 


168  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

the  one  set  might  well  be  a  paraphrase  of  the  other.  In 
at  least  five  cases  the  correspondences  are  so  close,  idea 
by  idea  and  line  by  line,  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to 
believe  that  the  English  author  did  not  have  the  French 
text  before  him  while  he  wrote.  There  is  even,  occasion- 
ally, a  verbal  resemblance  that  is  striking.  Though  it 
will  be  difficult,  until  all  the  manuscripts  of  both  works 
have  been  edited  and  can  be  submitted  to  a  minute 
comparison,  to  decide  just  how  far  the  dependence  of  the 
English  work  on  Robert  de  Gretham  goes,  my  own  in- 
vestigation of  the  texts  makes  me  ready  to  assert  that 
the  Miroir  had  been  read,  at  least,  by  the  compiler  of 
the  English  homilies.  So  much  seems  to  me  assured  by 
the  evidence  at  command.  With  regard  to  the  stories, 
which  have  a  far  greater  importance  in  the  English  than 
in  the  French  work,  the  former  seems  to  have  cut  loose 
from  the  latter  and  to  have  taken  entirely  different 
material.  I  consider,  it  will  be  seen,  Robert  de  Gretham's 
Miroir  as  being  a  model  rather  than  a  source  for  the 
northern  collection  of  homilies:  a  model  followed  or  de- 
parted from  at  the  discretion  of  the  compiler. 

The  preceding  discussion  naturally  leads  one  to  inquire 
when,  where,  and  by  whom  the  original  recension  of  the 
North-English  Homily  Collection  was  made.  Answers  to 
these  questions  can  be  given  with  a  varying  degree  of 
probability,  though  none  can  be  answered  with  absolute 
certainty.  About  the  authorship,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we 
really  possess  no  clue  that  can  be  trusted.  The  scribes  of 
two  or  three  manuscripts  have  indicated  their  names 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION     1G9 

(Johannes  Smyth,  for  example!);  but  they  have  been  less 
careful  to  preserve  the  name  of  the  compiler.  It  is,  how- 
ever, an  interesting  coincidence,  at  least,  that  at  the  end 
of  the  collection  in  one  manuscript  (Cambridge  Univ. 
Library  Dd.  I.  1)  appears  "quod  R.  Staundone,"  while 
in  another  (Phillipps  8122)  is  written  "nomen  scriptoris 
lt.S."  Since  the  two  manuscripts  arc  something  like 
fifty  years  apart  in  date  and  in  different  dialects,  they 
could  not  have  been  the  work  of  a  single  scribe.  One  is 
tempted,  therefore,  to  regard  some  R.  Staundone  as  the 
original  maker  of  the  collection,  though  the  evidence  is 
very  far  from  satisfactory.  Neither  Robert  Mannyng 
of  Brunne  nor  Richard  Rolle  of  Hampole,  to  whom  the 
work  has  at  one  time  or  another  been  ascribed,  can  pos- 
sibly have  been  the  writer.  It  is  safest  to  say  that  for 
the  present  the  book  must  be  classed  among  the  anony- 
mous productions  of  the  age.  That  the  author  was  a 
cleric  is  most  probable,  but  there  can  be  no  certainty 
whether  he  was  a  monk  or  a  secular  priest. 

With  regard  to  the  part  of  England  where  the  collec- 
tion was  made,  there  is  more  evidence.  Dr.  Horstmann 
called  attention  to  divergences  in  the  gospels,  assigned  to 
various  Sundays,  from  the  uses  of  Rome  and  of  Sarum. 
lb-  therefore  assumed  that  the  homilies  were  composed 
in  the  diocese  of  Durham.  If  it  be  added  that  the  order- 
ing of  the  Sunday  texts  diiiers  from  the  use  of  York,  we 
may  with  propriety  concur  in  this  opinion.  The  variation 
is  found  in  the  case  of  four  different  Sundays,  though  it 
.should  be  said  that  the  arrangement  of  the  manuscripts 


170  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

seems  to  indicate  a  certain  amount  of  confusion  in  the 

minds  of  the  scribes.   All  the  manuscripts  containing  the 

original  collection,  save  one,  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in 

the  dialect  of  the  North,  which  confirms  the  evidence 

from  arrangement.   To  be  sure,  we  have  no  manuscript 

that  does  not  show  corruption  through  the  independence 

and  carelessness  of  copyists;  but  we  can  be  certain  from 

the  rhymes  that  the  work  was  composed  not  very  far  to 

the  south  of  the  Scottish  border.    At  what  particular 

place  it  was  made  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.    The 

compiler  must  have  had  access  to  a  monastic  library  of 

some  size,  for  he  eked  out  the  "poverty"  of  mind,  which 

he  mentions  in  the  prologue,  by  the  use  of  a  good  many 

books  as  sources  of  his  tales;  but  he  might  have  found 

them  in  any  one  of  several  establishments  in  the  North. 

As  to  when  he  wrote,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the 

date  customarily  assigned  is  somewhat  too  early.   It  has 

been  argued  from  the  supposed  date  of  the  earliest  and 

best  manuscript,  which  is  unfortunately  only  a  fragment, 

that  the  collection  must  have  been  made  originally  at  the 

end  of  the  thirteenth  century.    This  manuscript  (Royal 

College  of  Physicians,  Edinburgh,  Ch.  5.  21)  has  been 

antedated  to  the  early  fourteenth  century,  whereas  a 

comparison  of  its  hand  with  that  of  manuscripts,  the 

dates  of  which  are  known  with  certainty,  shows  that  it 

could  not  have  been  written  till  late  in  that  century. 

Though  we  ought  to  allow  for  the  lapse  of  a  considerable 

period  to  account  for  the  changes  that  had  clearly  been 

made  in  the  text,  even  of  this  early  manuscript,  there  is  no 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    171 

reason  to  suppose  on  this  score  that  the  work  was  com- 
piled until  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
Moreover,  the  language  of  the  author,  as  far  as  it  can  be 
determined  from  an  examination  of  the  rhymes,  does  not 
make  it  necessary  for  us  to  place  him  as  early  as  the 
thirteenth  century,  though  it  scarcely  warrants  a  dog- 
matic statement  that  he  wrote  in  the  fourteenth.  An- 
other criterion  for  the  date  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that 
some  seven  stories  seem  to  have  been  taken  by  the  com- 
piler from  William  de  Wadington's  Manuel  des  Pechiez, 
a  work  of  edification  composed  in  England  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  ^.translation  of  this 
by  Robert  Mannyng  of  Brunne,  entitled  Ilahdlyng  Sijnne, 
was  undertaken,  as  we  know  from  Robert's  explicit  state- 
ment, in  the  year  1303.  A  comparison  of  certain  talcs, 
which  appear  in  all  three  works,  makes  it  clear  that  our 
author  borrowed  from  William  rather  than  from  Robert, 
and  it  seems  probable  that  the  French  work  would  have 
been  drawn  upon  for  our  homilies  at  about  the  same  time 
it  was  made  the  basis  of  a  free  translation.  Robert  and 
ojir_jiiithor,  according  to  their  own  words,  wrote  for  a 
similar  public  and  with  the  same  purpose:  they  were 
moved,  though  in  different  sections  of  England,  by  the 
same  impulse.  All  in  all,  it  is  safe  to  regard  the  Xorlh- 
English  Homily  Collection  as  a  product  of  the  earlier  four- 
teenth century. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  author's  tendency  to  expand  the 
narrative  parts  of  these  homilies  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  expository  sections.   That  readers  wen-  likewise  more 


\ 


172  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

interested  in  the  legends  and  exempla  than  in  the  ser- 
monizing proper  is  shown  by  one  manuscript  (Harleian 
2391),  which  contains  the  tales  of  the  original  collection 
without  the  gospel  paraphrases  and  the  expositions. 
Along  this  line,  moreover,  was  formed  one  of  the  two 
later  recensions  of  the  work,  which  not  only  included  lives 
of  saints  but  transformed  the  book  into  a  true  legendary. 
The  extant  manuscripts  of  the  original  compilation  show 
that  the  change  was  inevitable :  some  of  the  best  of  them 
have  sermons  for  St.  John  the  Baptist's  Day  and  for  the 
feast  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  From  this  to  the  addition 
of  a  proprium  sanctorum  or  a  legendary  in  the  same  metre 
was  but  a  step;  and  the  addition  was  twice  attempted 
during  the  fourteenth  century,  once  by  a  southern  and 
once  by  a  northern  writer,  though  there  seems  to  be  no 
way  to  discover  just  when  or  where  these  redactors  did 
their  work. 

One  of  the  recensions  thus  maole  is  found  in  the  famous 
Vernon  MS.,  owned  by  the  Bodleian  Library,  which  con- 
tains also  an  important  text  of  the  South-English  Legend- 
ary, a  metrical  translation  of  seven  lives  from  the  Le- 
genda  Aurea,  and  a  series  of  Mary  legends.  A  copy  of  this 
enlarged  redaction  is  extant  in  a  manuscript  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum;  but  it  has  not  been  discovered  elsewhere. 
We  cannot  attribute  the  changes  and  additions  of  the 
new  version  to  the  scribe  of  the  Vernon  MS.,  because  he 
copied  the  South-English  Legendary  also  in  an  enlarged 
form.  Before  this  scribe  made  his  great  thesaurus  of 
legends  towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  there- 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    173 

fore,  some  southerner  had  transformed  the  North-English 
Homily  Collect  ion  not  merely  by  turning  it  into  another 
dialect  but  by  adding  a  large  number  of  homilies  for  week 
days  and  saints'  days  throughout  the  year,  and  by  arrang- 
ing the  whole  in  two  parts.  In  the  first  he  included  nearly 
all  the  legends  and  conies  divots  of  the  original  collection, 
and  also  put  in  several  new  stories,  notably  for  the  feast 
of  Corpus  Christi.  The  second  part  he  made  a  pro- 
prium  sanctorum  with  homilies  appropriate  to  the  cele- 
bration of  thirty -four  different  days.  The  saints  for 
whose  days  he  wrote  sermons  in  this  part  were  all  well- 
known  figures  to  the  Church  at  large;  and  no  legends  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word  are  included.  Perhaps,  as 
I)r  Hoist mann  has  suggested,  the  copyist  of  the  Vernon 
MS.  considered  it  unnecessary  to  give  the  lives  of  the 
saints  in  question,  since  he  had  already  transcribed  those 
of  the  South-English  Legendary.  He  may,  accordingly, 
have  had  before  him  a  version  of  the  work  that  was  far 
more  truly  a  legendary  than  the  one  transmitted  by  him 
to  us.  I  may  add  that  the  introduction  to  the  second  part 
is  in  atrophic  form  and  was  probably  engrafted  here  be- 
cause it  fulfilled  the  purposes  of  the  redactor. 

The  other  new  recension  was  likewise  made  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  but  in  the  North  rather  than  the 
South.  Although  it  is  preserved  in  two  manuscripts  only, 
the  complication  of  their  mutual  relationship  seems  to 
indicate  a  wider  popularity  for  this  particular  enlarge- 
ment of  the  collection  than  would  be  implied  by  its 
meagre  representation  in  modern  libraries.    The  scribe 


174  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

of  one  of  the  manuscripts,  for  example,  rearranged  the 
first  twenty-four  homilies  of  the  series  according  to  the 
historical  sequence  of  their  scriptural  texts.  The  other 
manuscript  was  written  by  two  different  copyists,  the 
second  of  whom  must  have  followed  a  text  strikingly 
like  that  used  by  the  scribe  of  the  first  manuscript.  As  in 
the  southern  redaction,  the  work  is  much  enlarged  and 
is  divided  into  two  parts.  First  comes  a  temporale  mod- 
elled on  the  original  collection  but  much  altered  in  form 
and  in  substance.  Not  only  are  homilies  added  for  even 
more  week  days  than  is  the  case  with  the  Vernon  recen- 
sion, but  new  homilies  are  sometimes  substituted  out- 
right for  the  old.  In  general,  the  writer  had  a  tendency 
to  stress  the  gospel  paraphrases  and  to  restrict  the  explan- 
atory and  homiletic  passages;  and  he  omitted  more  than 
half  of  the  narratives  originally  contained  in  the  work. 
Thus  he  made  the  new  temporale  something  like  a  collec- 
tion of  gospel  stories.  Curiously  enough,  considering  the 
nature  of  the  second  part  of  the  newly  arranged  work,  one 
of  the  manuscripts  has  interpolated  among  the  homilies 
for  Sundays  four  lives  of  saints,  three  of  which  (Stephen 
the  Proto-martyr,  John  the  Evangelist,  and  Thomas  of 
Canterbury)  do  not  appear  in  the  other  manuscript.  The 
second  part  is,  indeed,  a  legendary  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word.  It  contains,  in  its  completer  form,  twenty- 
eight  poems  appropriate  to  feast-days  of  the  Church, 
though  a  few  of  these  are  rather  explanations  of  festivals 
than  stories  of  saints.  Very  incomplete  the  new  legendary 
is  as  compared  with  the  one  from  Gloucestershire.    It 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    175 

contains  no  lives  of  native  saints,  and  never  strays  out 
of  the  beaten  track  of  the  most  commonplace  hagiog- 
raphy.  It  could  have  served  no  purpose  beyond  giving 
its  readers  a  chance  to  peruse,  at  various  seasons  of  the 
year,  legends  suitable  to  the  greater  feasts;  it  remained 
an  appendage  of  the  iemporale,  just  as  in  the  southern 
collection  the  temporale  was  always  an  appendage  of  the 
legendary.  Such  as  they  were,  without  much  distinction 
either  in  substance  or  in  style,  the  legends  seem  to  have 
been  the  work  of  at  least  two  writers,  whose  dialects 
were  not  precisely  the  same. 

With  regard  to  the  North-English  Homily  Collection  in 
its  three  recensions  and  its  multifarious  variations  of 
detail,  it  must  be  said  that  many  questions  of  origin  and 
development  still  remain  unsolved.  Such  great  liberties 
were  taken  with  its  arrangement  and  its  contents  that 
almost  every  manuscript  may  be  regarded  as  a  new 
redaction.  Were  there  a  steady  growth  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  its  history,  there  would  be  less  diffi- 
culty  in  disentangling  the  stages  by  which  it  developed; 
but  the  exclusions  of  the  various  manuscripts  are  as 
mysterious  as  the  inclusions.  Scribes  seem  to  have  put 
into  it  whatever  was  convenient  and  to  have  left  out 
whatever  they  wished.  They  sometimes  inserted,  for 
example,  a  northern  Passion  of  Our  Lord,  which  was 
obviously  an  independent  poem  at  first.  They  lia<l  no 
consistent  plan.   As  far  as  any  tendency  is  discoverable 

in  the  entire  development,  it  is  to  transform  a  collection 

of   ermons  into  a  collection  of  stories.    lUi\  the  various 


176  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

authors,  translators,  and  copyists,  whose  combined  work 
made  up  the  amorphous  whole,  had  as  slight  regard  for 
systematic  construction  as  they  had  for  literary  fame. 
They  were  merely  desirous,  as  far  as  one  can  see,  of 
giving  the  unlettered  some  of  the  privileges  of  the 
learned,  and  some  of  the  incidental  delights. 

The  author  of  the  original  compilation  had  more  sense 
of  narrative  values,  it  seems  to  me,  as  well  as  more 
vigor  of  expression,  than  any  of  his  continuators.  He 
had  fluency;  he  knew  how  to  concentrate  attention  on 
the  points  of  a  story  that  would  most  interest  his  readers; 
he  possessed  a  g^ift  for  thrusting  home  a  moral  with  a 
homely  phrase.  He  could  give  a  satiric  picture  of  actual 
conditions  in  a  few  words,  and  he  used  Unconventional 
language  with  good  effect  in  trying  to  make  his  readers 
understand  and  feel  what  he  had  at  heart.  The  legends 
that  he  retold  have  neither  loftiness  of  thought  nor 
beauty  of  expression,  brt  they  represent  the  reaction  of 
common  minds  upon  ecclesiastical  traditions  beloved 
alike  by  high  and  low,  the  ignorant  and  the  learned. 
In  this  way  they  have  their  value  for  the  history  both  of 
/  legends  and  of  literature  at  large. 

About  the  year  1400,  or  perhaps  slightly  earlier,  a 
A.  I  third  important  legendary  in  verse  was  produced,  to 
/  k  match  those  originating  in  Gloucestershire  and  Durham. 
This  was  made  north  of  the  Forth,  and  is  known  to 
modern  scholars  as  the  Scottish  Legend  Collection.  The 
compiler  did  not  give  his  name,  though  he  wrote  with 
some  freedom  about  his  personal  history.    He  was,  he 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     177 

said  in  his  preface,  a  "mynistere  of  haly  kirke"  who 
could  no  longer  do  his  work  on  account  of  great  age  and 
feebleness.  In  several  other  passages  he  spoke  similarly 
of  his  condition.  At  the  beginning  of  the  legend  of  St. 
Julian,  for  example,  he  told  of  his  frequent  travels  as  a 
young  man  to  get  wisdom,  and  how  on  these  journeys  the 
travellers  were  accustomed  to  say  a  pater  noster  to  the 
patron  of  the  road  whenever  they  came  in  sight  of  an 
inn.  Altogether,  he  stamped  his  work  with  the  impression 
of  simple-minded  piety  and  of  sufficient  though  not  ex- 
traordinary learning.  He  was  not  without  experience  in 
writing  when  he  began  his  legendary,  since  he  had  already 
translated,  in  his  old  age,  "some  part"  of  the  story  of 
Christ  and  the  Virgin.  From  his  cursory  sketch  of  this 
book,  which  is  not  known  to  survive,  it  appears  that  he 
had  in  reality  written  a  complete  account  of  Jesus  and 
His  Mother,  beginning  with  the  birth  of  the  Virgin,  ending 
with  the  Assumption,  and  including  all  the  events  of  the 
Incarnation  and  the  Passion.  To  this  he  had  appended  a 
series  of  sixty-six  miracles,  the  largest  collection  of  Mary 
legends,  as  far  as  we  know,  that  ever  existed  in  English. 
From  what  original  he  translated  we  cannot  tell,  but 
only  that  he  had  made  the  completes!  temporale  of  the  sort 
found  in  the  South-English  Legendary  of  which  we  have 
any  record  in  English.  All  this  he  had  accomplished,  in 
his  own  phrase,  "to  eschew  idleness."     S 

After   making  the  work  just    mentioned,   which    must 

have  been  of  very  considerable  length,  tin-  author  washed 

to  write,  if  not  prevented  by  "eld  and  fault  of  sight,"  of 


178  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  twelve  apostles.  That  done,  he  was  apparently  led 
to  make  the  legendary  as  a  whole,  which  contains  more 
than  33,000  lines  in  short  rhyming  couplets.  At  least, 
though  the  more  recent  editor  of  the  collection  has  ex- 
pressed doubts  as  to  whether  it  was  completed  by  the 
old  man  who  wrote  of  the  twelve  apostles,  there  is  nothing 
in  language  or  style  to  indicate  diversity  of  authorship. 
The  feat  of  making  a  paraphrase  of  such  length  in  sim- 
ple metre  is  not,  it  must  be  remarked,  too  extraordinary 
for  belief,  even  though  the  writer  was  enfeebled  by  age. 
Industry  and  application,  together  with  a  certain  facility 
of  expression  in  verse,  were  the  sole  requisites.  The  dif- 
ferences in  literary  value  of  the  individual  legends  were 
due,  pretty  clearly,  to  the  materials  with  which  the  au- 
thor worked.  Though  his  statement  that  he  was  merely 
a  translator  was  too  modest,  since  he  paraphrased  always 
and  frequently  adapted,  he  cannot  be  credited  with 
poetical  creation. 

He  was  formerly  identified  with  John  Barbour,  the 
Scottish  contemporary  of  Chaucer,  who  died  as  Arch- 
deacon of  Aberdeen  and  wrote  the  Bruce,  a  vigorous 
national  epic,  and  has  had  ascribed  to  him  also  a  long 
poem  on  the  Trojan  War.  It  has  been  shown,  however, 
that  the  legend- writer  could  not  have  been  Barbour: 
differences  of  dialect  as  well  as  of  verse  make  it  impossi- 
ble, while  the  evidence  for  the  identification  was  never 
well  founded.  We  must  be  content,  it  appears,  to  let  him 
remain  anonymous  and  to  be  grateful  for  such  indica- 
tions as  to  his  personality  as  he  gave  us.    For  myself, 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    179 

though  I  have  said  that  the  legendary  as  a  whole  was 
apparently  the  work  of  a  single  hand,  I  do  not  feel  sure 
that  some  of  the  lives  may  not  have  been  added  by  a 
near  contemporary  and  neighbor  of  the  original  author. 
The  fact  that  we  possess  only  a  single  manuscript  of  the 
book,  and  clearly  not  the  original  manuscript,  increases 
the  difficulty  of  deciding  the  matter.  The  question  re- 
mains open  because  it  has  to  be  decided,  if  at  all,  by 
means  of  literary  criticism,  which  is  very  far  from  an 
infallible  guide  as  to  authorship.  My  personal  impression, 
based  on  the  style  of  the  stories  and  the  prevailing  tend- 
ency to  begin  each  of  them  with  a  longer  or  shorter 
introduction  in  a  subjective  manner,  is  that  the  legendary 
was  completed  in  virtually  its  present  form  by  one  man. 
As  I  have  said,  I  believe  that  the  varying  interest  of 
the  legends  and  the  apparently  unequal  narrative  skill 
displayed  by  the  writer,  were  due  to  the  sources.  Cer- 
tainly they  are  not  sufficient  to  be  the  foundation  of  any 
argument  for  diversity  of  authorship. 

The  order  in  which  the  legends  are  arranged  is  of  con- 
siderable interest,  since  it  differs  markedly  from  that  of 
the  two  collections  previously  considered.  Whether  or  no 
the  writer  at  first  intended  to  do  more  than  make  a  his- 
tory of  the  apostles  as  an  appendix  to  his  series  of  poems 
on  Chrisl  and  the  Virgin,  the  completed  series  <>f  lives 
shows  a  plan  that  might  well  have  been  in  the  compiler's 
mind    from    the   start.     Like   the  collections   of   lives   in 

French  prose  that  were  circulated  in  England,  it  has  the 
hierarchical  order.  To  the  legends  of  tin-  twelve  apostles 


180  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

succeed  those  of  Mark  and  Luke  as  representatives  of  the 
evangelists.  Lives  of  Mary  Magdalene  and  Martha,  with 
emphasis  on  their  supposed  apostolate  in  France,  then 
follow;  and  Mary  Magdalene  seemingly  suggested  Mary 
of  Egypt,  whose  romantic  story  comes  next.  Thereafter 
four  martyrs  of  the  early  church  are  celebrated,  and  as 
many  more  confessors.  From  this  point  the  order  be- 
comes confused,  though  it  is  apparent  in  several  cases 
that  similarities  between  the  characteristics  or  careers  of 
saints  account  for  their  juxtaposition.  Towards  the  end 
a  plan  can  once  more  be  discerned  in  two  groups,  one  of 
four  martyrs  and  one  of  ten  virgins,  with  the  latter  of 
which  the  series  of  fifty  legends  closes.  Though  it  is  not 
to  be  supposed,  as  we  shall  see,  that  the  maker  of  the 
legendary  used  any  one  of  the  collections  in  French  prose 
as  a  source,  it  seems  likely  that  he  was  influenced  by 
them  in  his  choice  of  a  plan  for  the  book.  Even  though 
all  the  contents  are  not  arranged  in  orderly  fashion  ac- 
cording to  the  "degrees"  of  sainthood,  they  are  not  put 
in  quite  at  haphazard. 

A  theory  of  Dr.  Horstmann's,  who  first  edited  the 
collection,  that  the  writer  originally  ended  the  series  with 
the  legend  of  Barnabas,  made  a  new  ending  with  St. 
Machor  (number  27),  stopped  again  with  St.  Ninian 
(number  40),  and  finally  added  the  sequence  of  the  ten 
virgins,  has  the  color  of  probability.  Certainly  the  posi- 
tion of  the  legends  of  St.  Machor  and  St.  Ninian  makes 
one  believe  that  they  were  respectively  intended  to  stand 
last  in  the  collection.  Not  only  are  these  the  only  British 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    181 

saints  in  the  entire  list,  but  two  considerable  passages  in 
their  lives  are  identical.  It  would  seem  that  the  maker 
of  the  book  not  only  had  fears  of  being  unable,  on  account 
of  his  age,  to  complete  his  work,  but  was  economical  of 
materials  that  could  be  made  to  serve  a  double  purpose. 
Though  we  cannot  be  sure  that  the  one  manuscript 
extant  preserves  the  original  order  of  the  legends  in  every 
particular,  the  fact  of  its  having  just  fifty  lives  seems  to 
indicate  that  it  contains  the  entire  series.  Furthermore, 
the  round  number  tends  to  persuade  one  that  the  work 
was  planned  and  executed  by  a  single  writer. 

The  collection  was  not  a  compilation  from  various 
sources  to  the  same  extent  as  the  two  earlier  English 
legend  books.  Such  close  parallels  have  been  noted  be- 
tween a  large  majority  of  the  lives  and  the  most  famous 
mediaeval  repository  of  legends  and  exempla,  the  Legcnda 
Aurea  by  Jacobus  de  Voragine,  that  this  must  be  re- 
garded as  the  primary  source.  In  introducing  the  legend 
of  St.  Blasius,  indeed,  the  writer  expressly  acknowledged 
his  indebtedness.  "I  found  about  him  in  the  Golden 
Legend,  both  the  beginning  and  the  end,  as  I  shall  here 
undo  for  you,  without  any  addition  set  thereto."  Else- 
where he  did  not  refer  to  the  work  by  name,  though  he 
had  the  quite  enstomary  habit  of  mentioning  a  "book" 
as  the  source  of  his  information.  As  to  what  books  he 
used)  aside  From  the  Legenda  Aurea,  I  cannol  speak  with 
much    confidence,    since    the    subject    lias    n<»t    yet   been 

properly  investigated,  [ndirectly  at  least,  he  drew  upon 
the  Vita  I'airum;  but  since  he  sometimes  referred   to 


182  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

this  when  he  was  clearly  depending  on  the  Legenda  Aurea, 
his  references  have  little  value.  Dr.  Horstmann  sug- 
gested that  the  Speculum  Historiale  by  Vincent  of  Beau- 
vais,  which  formed  part  of  the  great  encyclopaedia  of 
the  later  Middle  Ages,  furnished  the  author  with  much 
of  his  information.  This,  however,  cannot  be  regarded 
as  proved.  For  the  two  Scottish  saints  whose  legends 
were  given,  the  sources  were  clearly  independent  Latin 
lives:  that  of  St.  Ninian  probably  being  the  biography 
by  Ailred  of  Rievaulx.  Although  I  feel  some  doubt  as 
to  whether  the  author  used  quite  as  much  liberty  in 
handling  his  materials,  by  way  of  interpolating  and  com- 
bining, as  Dr.  Horstmann  would  have  us  believe,  it  is 
evident  that  he  often  inserted  general  observations  of 
his  own  aside  from  those  that  he  put  into  the  introduc- 
tions and  conclusions  of  the  various  legends.  Every- 
where he  paraphrased,  as  I  have  said,  rather  than  trans- 
lated. 

The  work  has  been  called  a  production  of  more  literary 
value  than  the  two  earlier  Middle  English  legendaries, 
but  not  with  much  justice.  Greater  sophistication  it 
does  have,  which  gives  it  a  specious  air  of  distinction. 
There  are  more  frequent  references  to  the  Church 
Fathers;  there  is  a  closer  approximation  to  the  manner 
of  Latin  legends.  Without  making  any  parade  of  learn- 
ing, for  he  was  evidently  a  simple-hearted  and  modest 
person,  the  author  conveyed  the  impression  of  scholarly 
tastes  and  of  seclusion.  He  had  his  mind  fixed,  I  should 
say,  less  on  the  public  for  which  he  was  writing  and  more 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    183 

on  the  legends  themselves  than  the  makers  of  the  English 
collections.  Though  he  must  have  written  for  a  similar 
unlearned  public,  he  impresses  the  modern  reader  with 
the  truthfulness  of  his  statement  that  he  did  his  work  in 
order  to  avoid  idleness.  There  is  comparatively  little 
homiletic  application  and  almost  no  effort  to  write  down 
to  the  level  of  the  laity.  The  author  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  those  quiet  and  industrious  priests  of  scholarly 
tendency  who  have  dignified  the  ranks  of  the  parish 
clergy  in  all  times,  men  who  have  been  neither  self- 
seeking  nor  always  effective,  but  useful  none  the  less. 

In  spite  of  the  limited  praise  that  can  be  given  the 
legendary  for  its  literary  qualities,  there  would  be  no 
point  in  denying  that  many  of  the  lives  are  narrated  with 
very  considerable  skill.  Even  granting,  as  I  think  we 
must,  that  the  better  stories  were  paraphrased  from  origi- 
nals less  bald  and  stereotyped  than  the  sources  of  the 
poorer  legends,  it  is  still  true  that  a  writer  devoid  of  lit- 
erary ability  might  have  spoiled  the  admirable  accounts 
of  Mary  of  Egypt  and  Eugenia.  Not  only  do  such 
legends  as  these  show  the  power  of  phrasing  incident 
effectively,  but  they  display  a  genuine  feeling  that  ele- 
vates the  verse  at  times  to  the  level  of  imaginative  poe- 
try. Though  the  author  had  no  greater  skill  in  telling 
a  story  than  the  earlier  writers  whom  I  have  mentioned, 
and  did  not  possess  the  gift  of  some  of  them  for  pungent 
satire,  lie  alone  perhaps  could  have  penned  the  lyrical 
address  to  the  Virgin  incorporated  in  the  Mary  of  Egypt. 
These  fifty-four  lines,  with  some  other  passages  of  sim- 


184  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

ilar  quality,  relieve  the  work  from  barrenness  and  give 
it  occasional  touches  of  romantic  charm. 

Not  long  after  the  compilation  of  the  work  just  de- 
scribed, John  Mirk,  a  member  of  the  Augustinian  canonry 
of  Lilleshul  in  Shropshire,  made  a  collection  of  homilies 
in  prose,  which  he  called  the  Festial.  We  know  nothing 
about  him  except  that  he  wrote  also  a  treatise  in  verse, 
the  character  of  which  is  explained  by  its  title,  Instruc- 
tions for  Parish  Priests.  The  date  of  his  Festial  is  assured 
by  the  fact  that  at  least  one  of  the  manuscripts  states 
with  reference  to  St.  Wenefred  that  her  day  "is  not 
ordeynyd  by  holy  churche  to  be  halowid,"  whereas  an- 
other and  later  manuscript  remarks :  "  which  day  is  now 
ordeynet  to  be  halo  wet."  As  the  day  was  thus  digni- 
fied in  1415,  it  is  obvious  that  the  book  must  have  been 
written  before  that  year. 

The  title  indicates  the  general  scope  of  the  work,  which 
contains  brief  sermons  for  most  of  the  chief  festivals  of 
Christ  and  the  Virgin,  and  also  for  many  of  the  celebra- 
tions in  honor  of  the  saints.  The  homilies  are  arranged  in 
the  orpler  of  the  calendar,  beginning  with  the  first  Sun- 
day in  Advent,  just  as  is  the  case  with  the  North-English 
Homily  Collection.  They  are  not  based,  however,  on  the 
gospels  appointed  for  particular  days,  and  they  contain 
little  exhortation  or  biblical  paraphrase.  For  the  most 
part  they  explain  why  such  and  such  a  day  was  honored 
and  how  or  when  the  celebration  was  appointed;  beyond 
that  they  are  devoted  to  the  narration  of  stories.  The 
homilies  for  saints'  days  usually  contain  very  little  save 


THE   CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION     185 

accounts  of  the  saints,  together  with  one  or  more  miracles. 
Sometimes  they  have  summaries  of  acts  and  passions, 
sometimes  stories  of  translations,  sometimes  detached  in- 
cidents illustrative  of  the  saints'  careers.  They  are  never 
very  long.  Otherwise,  especially  for  the  regidar  festivals 
of  the  liturgical  year,  they  give  exempla,  sometimes  drawn 
from  the  lives  of  the  saints  and  sometimes  not.  Alto- 
gether, the  Fcstial  includes  one  of  the  largest  collections 
oi  anecdotes,  Mary  legends,  conies  devots,  and  legendary 
/  stories_pf  all  sorts  that  was  ever  made  in  English.  The 
work  embraces  in  its  complete  form  about  seventy-five 
homilies  or  legends,  but  the  total  number  of  narratives  is 
far  greater  than  this,  as  several  stories  are  often  given  for 
the  same  day. 

Only  three  English  saints  are  included  in  the  list  of 
those  whose  days  are  honored.  It  is  significant  of  the 
place  accorded  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  as  late  as  the 
fifteenth  century  that  Mirk  gave  narratives  not  only  for 
his  day  but  also  for  the  date  of  his  translation.  The  other 
two  native  saints  were  evidently  put  in  for  local  reasons. 
St.  Alkmund,  a  ninth  century  Northumbrian  king,  was 
patron  of  Mirk's  own  church,  and  as  such  naturally 
honored  by  the  author,  while  the  centre  of  the  cult  of 
St.  Wenefred  was  Holywell,  not  far  over  the  border  into 
Wales  from  Lilleshul.  Various  other  British  saints  are 
mentioned  by  way  of  anecdotal  reference,  of  course,  and 
many  tales  of  wonder  from  English  sources  arc  intro- 
duced. None  the  les>,  it  i>  as  true  of  the  FesHtd  as  'it'  the 
Scottish  legendary  in  verse  thai  the  saints  celebrated  are 


186  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

almost  all  saints  of  the  early  Church  who  were  in  no  way- 
connected  with  the  west  of  Europe.  It  would  be  unfair  to 
draw  any  deduction  from  this  as  to  the  native  cults  of 
England,  save  that  in  the  ordinary  parish  church  only 
the  greater  saints,  together  with  some  few  of  local  fame, 
were  specifically  honored. 

This  deduction  as  to  parish  churches  can  be  made 
with  safety  because  John  Mirk,  as  his  prologue  definitely 
says,  made  the  Festial  to  give  priests  the  information 
they  needed  for  the  instruction  of  the  people  about  the 
great  feasts  of  the  year.  He  had  felt  from  his  own  lack 
of  learning  the  difficulty  experienced  by  parish  priests, 
through  want  of  books  and  "simpleness  of  letters,"  in 
teaching  their  flocks.  Accordingly  he  drew  from  the 
Legenda  Aurea  "  with  more  adding  to"  what  was  needful 
for  the  parson  "to  teach  and  for  others  to  learn"  with 
reference  to  the  high  festivals  of  the  year.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  though  his  chief  source  was  the  Legenda  Aurea, 
he  put  in  a  good  deal  of  information  from  other  books 
and  arranged  the  whole  according  to  his  own  liking. 
Frequently  he  mentioned  the  Gesta  Romanorum  as  the 
book  on  which  he  was  drawing;  and  famous  names  like 
Gregory,  Bernard,  John  Beleth  (who  wrote  in  the  twelfth 
century  a  Summa  de  Divinis  Officiis),  and  Alexander 
Neckam  were  used  to  give  authority  to  statements  or  to 
stories.  One  must  remember,  of  course,  that  to  John 
Mirk,  as  to  most  mediaeval  writers,  an  authority  quoted 
at  second  hand  was  as  good  as  any  other,  and  that  many 
of  his  references  were  taken  from  Jacobus  de  Voragine. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    187 

Yet  he  paraphrased  very  freely  and,  like  Sir  Thomas 
Malory,  "reduced"  stories  to  convenient  compass.  He 
was  not  a  translator  but  a  compiler. 

The  Festial  has  no  literary  graces  and  makes  no  literary 
pretensions.  It  is  an  interesting  work,  not  because  Mirk 
told  stories  well  but  because  he  told  so  many  stories. 
As  a  compendium  of  legend  and  anecdote  it  makes  ex- 
ceedingly good  reading  at  the  present  day  for  anyone 
who  likes  the  bare  essentials  of  plot  and  has  sufficient 
imagination  to  envisage  detail  for  himself.  It  must  have 
been  exceedingly  useful,  as  well  as  interesting,  to  the 
parish  priest  who  wished  to  piece  out  his  imperfections 
of  learning  and  of  illustration  by  means  of  a  single  book. 
Quite  evidently  it  was  found  serviceable,  for  at  least 
fourteen  more  or  less  complete  manuscripts  of  the  work 
are  known  to  exist,  while  eighteen  editions  of  it  were 
printed  between  1483  and  1532.  The  manuscripts  con- 
tain a  varying  number  of  homilies,  which  shows  that 
the  book  was  subjected  to  the  customary  scribal  tam- 
pering. Additions  were  made,  as  well  as  necessary  trans- 
criptions into  other  than  the  Shropshire  dialect  of  the 
author. 

The  most  marked  change  made,  however,  was  one  of 
order.  One  manuscripl  (Harleian  2391),  which  contains 
also  the  narratives  of  the  North-Enylish  Homily  Colli r- 
tion,  rearranges  the  homilies  in  two  divisions,  a  tcmporulc 
and  a  saiirtoralc.   This  was  the  order  followed  by  (  \i\ton, 

who  printed  tin-  first  edition,  as  well  as  by  subsequent 

editors.    It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  work  was  three 


188  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

times  printed  in  France  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  once  at  Paris  and  twice  at  Rouen.  The  other 
editions  were  all  from  London  and  Westminster,  save 
that  the  second  was  printed  at  Oxford  in  1486.  For  more 
than  a  century  Mirk's  Festial  thus  enjoyed  a  popularity 
that  it  merited  by  its  convenience  as  a  work  of  reference, 
though  not  by  its  worth  as  literature.  Like  many  another 
book  of  greater  pretensions  and  of  more  solid  value,  it  was 
overwhelmed  by  the  Protestant  Reformation,  which  did 
its  best  to  bury  the  Middle  Ages  more  completely  than 
the  ancient  world  had  ever  been  buried.  From  this  point 
of  view  the  reformers  were  the  new  barbarians. 

Of  a  different  character  from  the  collections  hitherto 
described,  and  addressed  to  a  different  class  of  readers, 
was  a  series  of  thirteen  lives  of  women  saints  by  an 
Austin  friar  named  Osbern  Bokenam.  .[The  author  was, 
according  to  his  own  admission,  a  follower  of  Lydgate 
and  Capgrave;  and  he  may  properly  be  regarded  as  being 
of  the  Chaucerian  school,  which  thus  had  an  influence  on 
the  movement  that  I  have  been  tracing.  Though  a  some- 
what crabbed  poet,  Osbern  was  a  poet  still.  Of  an  invin- 
cible personal  modesty,  and  convinced  that  the  great 
poetical  harvest  had  already  been  reaped  by  his  prede- 
cessors, he  yet  regarded  himself,  quite  clearly,  as  being 
in  the  tradition  of  the  muses.  His  own  words  from  his 
prologue  to  the  life  of  St.  Agnes,  or  rather  the  words  ad- 
dressed to  him  by  Pallas,  are  worth  quoting  to  show  the 
spirit  in  which  he  undertook  his  task. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION    189 

Thou  oommyst  to  late,  for  gadyrd  up  be 
The  most  fresh  ilourys  by  personys  thre  — 
Of  wych  tweyne  baa  fynysshyd  here  fate, 
Hut  the  thiydde  hath  Atropos  yet  in  cherte  — 
As  Grower,  Chauncer,  and  Joon  Lytgate. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Chaucer's  influence  had  affected  the 
legend-maker's  point  of  view  and,  not  altogether  hap- 
pily, his  style. 

Nothing  is  more  significant  of  this  changed  attitude, 
which  under  happier  political  conditions  might  have 
made  English  literature  flower  in  the  fifteenth  century  as 
it  did  a  hundred  years  later,  than  the  fact  that  Osbern 
Bokenam  gave  us  abundant  information  about  his  own 
life.  He  was  obscure  even  in  his  own  day;  he  was  learned 
rather  than  gifted;  he  was  conscious  of  his  own  unim- 
portance; yet  he  found  it  natural  to  show  who  he  was 
and  why  he  wrote.  He  was  able,  besides,  to  make  legends 
in  a  pious  spirit  and  yet  to  refer  as  frequently  to  Plato 
and  Ovid  as  to  Augustine  and  Jerome.  He  was  personal, 
just  as  he  was  classical,  because  he  expressed  the  temper 
of  his  age. 

Osbern  Bokenam  was  born  about  1393  and  during  the 
period  of  his  literary  activity,  at  least,  was  a  member  of 
the  AuL'u-diniaii  house  at  Stokelare  in  Suffolk.  He  had, 
a-  we  shall  Bee,  learned  and  noble  friends;  and  he  himself 
was  a  scholar.  lie  travelled  also.  We  learn  that  in  1438 
he  was  in  Venice  and  that  in  1 145,  before  beginning  his 
legend  of  Mary  Magdalene,  he  went  on  pilgrimage  to  the 
shrine  of  St.  James  at  Compostella  in  Spain.   Moreover, 


190  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

he  speaks  in  the  prologue  to  Margaret  of  the  last  time  he 
was  in  Italy,  quite  with  the  casual  ease  of  the  maker  of 
many  journeys.  He  wrote  four  different  books,  certainly, 
while  there  is  some  reason  for  supposing  that  a  Dialogue 
betwix  a  Seculer  and  Frere  was  from  his  pen.  Of  the  works 
known  to  be  his,  a  collection  of  legends,  presumably  in 
prose,  came  first.  No  copy  of  this  has  been  found,  how- 
ever; and  our  information  about  it  comes  solely  through 
Osbern's  description  at  the  beginning  of  his  second  work, 
the  Mappula  Angliae.  He  speaks  there  of  "the  englische 
boke,"  which  he  has  "  compiled  of  Legenda  Aurea  and 
of  other  famous  legendes  at  the  instaunce  of  my  specialle 
frendis  and  for  edificacioun  and  comfort  of  alle  tho  the 
whiche  shuld  redene  hit  or  here  hit,"  and  mentions  lives 
"  of  Seynt  Cedde,  Seynt  Felix,  Seynt  Edwarde,  Seynt  Os- 
walde,  and  many  other  seyntis  of  Englond."  This  col- 
lection could  not  have  been  the  extant  translation  of  the 
Legenda  Aurea,  for  that  does  not  contain  lives  of  the 
English  saints  whom  he  cites.  One  can  only  hope  that 
some  manuscript  of  what  must  have  been  a  highly  inter- 
esting series  of  legends  may  yet  be  discovered.  The 
Mappida  Anglia?  is  a  description  of  England  translated 
from  Higden's  Polychronicon,  and  can  be  dated  as  having 
been  written  before  1445,  since  a  treatise  on  reckoning 
time,  which  follows  it  in  the  only  surviving  manuscript, 
was  copied  by  the  same  scribe  in  that  year.  In  the  Map- 
pula Anglice  the  author  twice  gives  his  name.  In  the 
epilogue  he  says  that  the  capital  letters  at  the  beginning 
of  the  chapters  " expressyn  the  compilatours  name";  and 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    191 

they  spell,  in  point  of  fact,  "Osbernus  Bokenham."  In 
a  Latin  distich  at  the  end,  moreover,  his  Christian  name 
appears.  At  some  time  before  he  began  his  extant  col- 
lection of  legends,  he  made,  so  he  tells  us,  a  Latin  poem 
in  ballade  rhyme  concerning  the  daughters  of  St.  Anne. 
Of  this  no  trace  has  been  discovered.  Last  of  all  he 
wrote  his  series  of  lives  of  women  saints. 

This  is  preserved  in  a  single  manuscript,  written  at 
Cambridge  in  1447  for  Thomas  Burgh,  an  Austin  friar 
to  whom  Osbern  had  dedicated  the  first  of  the  legends. 
The  table  of  contents  at  the  end  of  the  manuscript  gives 
this  information,  together  with  the  author's  name  and 
the  facts  that  he  was  a  doctor  of  divinity,  that  he  resided 
at  Stokclare,  and  that  the  expense  of  copying  the  book 
was  thirty  shillings.  The  saints'  legends  included  in  the 
collection  were  the  following:  Margaret,  Anna,  Christina, 
Ursula,  Faith,  Agnes,  Dorothy,  Mar;/  Magdalene,  Catharine 
of  Alexandria,  Cecilia,  Agatha,  Lucy,  and  Elizabeth.  Osbern 
began  the  first  of  them  on  September  7,  1443,  as  he  stated 
with  particularity.  By  1445  he  had  written  seven  others, 
while  the  remaining  five  must  have  been  completed  soon 
after,  since  the  manuscript  containing  them  was  copied, 
as  I  have  said,  in  1447.  Such  exactitude  of  information  is 
unusual,  even  about  a  modern  book;  and  it  is  interesting 
to  know,  further,  thai  Osbern  wrote  liis  legend  <>f  Catha- 
rine  in    five  days.     Seven   of   the  Lives   lie  dedicated   to 

friends  or  patrons:  a  fact  thai  throws  light  not  only  on 
hi^  connections  l>nt  on  the  conditions  of  poetical  produc- 
tion in  the  fifteenth  century.    Aside  from  the  Man/ant, 


192  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

to  which  I  have  already  referred,  he  inscribed  three 
legends  to  ladies  who  bore  the  names,  respectively,  of 
Catharine,  Agatha,  and  Elizabeth,  while  the  Mary  Mag- 
dalene he  wrote  at  the  request  of  Lady  Bowsere,  Com- 
tesse  d'Eu,  a  sister  of  Richard  of  York.  The  patronage 
of  the  Elizabeth  was  only  less  aristocratic,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  than  this  last,  for  it  was  presented  to  Elizabeth 
Vere,  Countess  of  Oxford.  With  reference  to  two  of  the 
six  lives  that  were  not  dedicated,  Osbern  explained  his 
choice  of  subjects:  he  wrote  about  Faith  because  he  was 
born  on  her  day,  and  about  Cecilia  because  "long  ago" 
he  had  taken  her  together  with  St.  Faith  and  St.  Barbara 
"  to  his  valentines." 

He  used  various  metres  for  the  legends :  the  four-beat 
rhyming  couplet,  and  stanzaic  forms  of  seven,  eight,  and 
sixteen  lines.  His  favorite,  however,  seems  to  have  been 
the  rhyme  royal,  a  metre  loved  by  Chaucer  and  emi- 
nently suitable  for  narratives  in  verse.  For  his  materials 
he  drew,  like  John  Mirk,  on  the  Legenda  Aurea,  — 

not  wurde  for  wurde,  for  that  ne  may  be, 
In  no  translacyoun,  after  Jeromys  decre, 
But  fro  sentence  to  sentence  I  dar  wele  seyn, 
I  hym  have  fohvyde  evene  by  and  by. 

Though  he  had  a  different  text  of  the  Legenda  Aurea  from 
the  one  which  has  been  printed  by  the  modern  editor  of 
that  work,  and  apparently  used  other  books  for  a  few  of 
the  lives,  the  truth  of  his  statement  has  been  shown  by 
recent  study  of  the  sources.  He  gave,  in  general,  as  faith- 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    193 

ful  a  rendering  of  his  originals  as  was  consistent  with  his 
purpose,  which  was  not  only  devotional  but  literary. 

As  a  poet  and  story-teller,  Osbern  is  an  interesting 
figure,  though  he  had  no  great  talent.    He  was  a  learned 
and  simple-minded  man  who  dearly  loved  to  intersperse 
his  tales  with  references  to  the  Muses;  with  subtleties  like 
his  references  in  the  prologue  of  Margaret  to  the  cause 
efficient,  the  cause  material,  the  cause  formal,  and  the 
cause  final;  with  disquisitions  on  medicine  such  as  the 
one  in  which  he  gravely  discussed  the  nature  of  the  flux 
that  afflicted  St.  Lucy's  mother;  or  with  recollections  of 
his  travels.   He  expressly  and  with  iteration  disclaimed 
all  desire  to  compete  as  a  poet  with  great  men,  dead  or 
living;  his  wish  was  only  to  write  plainly  in  "Suthfolk 
speche."  In  this  he  was  not  altogether  successful,  for  his 
language  was  sometimes  more  than  a  little  rough-hewn. 
Yet  his  'verse  flows  smoothly,  as  a  rule,  except  for  the 
obnoxious  prevalence  of  words  of  Latin  derivation,  espe- 
cially in  rhyme,  which  was  a  besetting  sin  of  the  writers 
who  followed  Lydgate.    He  recounted  his  stories  with 
directness  and  simplicity,  indeed;  he  gave  them  rapid 
movement;  he  could  impart  a  dramatic  quality  to  dia- 
logue. Such  virtues  as  these,  taken  along  with  the  gentle 
fancy  and  the  sense  of  humor  that  crop  out  in  his  verse, 
make  him  pleasant  to  read,  even  though  he  was  only  a 
second-rate  versifier.  The  playful  modesty  and  the  happy 
humor  of  the  man  are  well  illustrated  in  the  prologue  to 

Margaret,  when  be  bids  his  friend  Thomas  Burgh  conceal 
his  authorship  wh  irever  cavillers  may  be  present:  — 


194.  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

and  principally 
At  hoom  at  Caunbrygge,  in  your  hows, 
Where  wyttys  be  manye  ryht  capcyows 
And  subtyl;  wych  sone  my  lewydnesse 
Shuld  aspye.   Wherfore,  of  jentylnesse, 
Kepyth  it  as  cloos  as  ye  best  kan 
A  lytyl  whyle;  and  not-for-than 
If  ye  algate  shul  it  owth  lete  go, 
Be  not  aknowe  whom  it  comyth  fro, 
But  seyth,  as  ye  doon  undyrstand, 
It  was  you  sent  owt  of  Agelond 
From  a  frend  of  yourys  that  usyth  to  selle 
Goode  hors  at  feyrys,  and  doth  dwelle 
A  lytyl  fro  the  Castel  of  Bolyngbrok 
In  a  good  town,  wher  ye  fyrst  tok 
The  name  of  Thomas,  and  clepyd  is  Borgh 
In  al  that  cuntre  evene  thorgh  and  thorgh. 
And  thus  ye  shul  me  weel  excuse 
And  make  that  men  shul  not  muse 
To  have  of  me  ony  suspicyoun. 

Of  less  interest  than  Osbern's  book,  perhaps,  are  the 
translations  of  the  Legenda  Aurea  that  were  made  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  though  one  of  them  has 
very  considerable  merit  and  much  historical  importance. 
Two  renderings  of  this  famous  work,  the  most  celebrated 
collection  of  saints'  lives  from  the  thirteenth  century 
forwards,  are  known  to  me.  The  first  is  a  mere  frag- 
ment of  seven  lives  in  verse,  preserved  only  in  the  Vernon 
manuscript,  the  remarkable  thesaurus  of  legends  already 
described.  Indeed,  it  appears  certain  that  these  seven 
poems  are  rather  random  excerpts  from  the  Legenda 
Aurea  than  the  remains  of  a  complete  translation.  They 
are  not  arranged  in  the  order  of  the  original,  and  give  no 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFOIIMATION    195 

evidence  of  having  been  selected  for  any  definite  reason. 
Their  subjects  are  Paula,  Ambrose,  a  "certain  virgin  in 
Antioch,"  Theodora,  Bernard,  Augustine,  and  Savinian 
and  Savina.  They  were  versified  in  the  short  rhyming 
couplets  so  popular  with  writers  of  narrative,  and  were 
made  in  southern  England  about  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century. 

The  later  translation  was  complete:  a  prose  rendering 
made  with  freedom  but  with  sufficient  accuracy.  It  was 
finished  in  1438,  and  was  perhaps  the  work  of  more  than 
one  writer,  though  of  this  we  cannot  be  sure.  There  is 
significance  as  to  the  audience  for  whom  the  translation 
\\as  made  in  the  fact  that  one  of  the  best  extant  manu- 
scripts was  bequeathed  in  1460  by  "John  Burton,  citysen 
and  mercer  of  London,"  to  his  daughter  and,  after  her 
decease,  to  "  the  prioresse  and  the  covent  of  Halywelle 
for  evermore."  The  translator  (or  translators),  it  should 
be  stated,  followed  the  order  and  the  text  of  the  French 
version  by  Jean  de  Vignay  rather  than  the  Latin,  though 
there  are  slight  differences  in  content  between  the  French 
and  English  translations  which  can  be  explained  only  on 
the  bypol  hesis  that  the  Latin  was  used  as  final  authority. 
One  manuscript  (Trinity  College,  Dublin,  310)  contains 
a  series  of  twenty  of  the  lives,1  which  have  been  copied 
down  quite  wil  houl  reference  to  the  original  order  of  t  lie 

book.  Although  both  the  beginning  and  the  ending  of  tins 

1  My  thanks  are  due  to  Miss  I.  M  Overend,  <>f  Dublin,  «li"  very 
kindly  verified  the  contents  of  tliis  manuscript  for  me  and  copied  speci- 
mens >>f  the  text,  'In!-  enabling  me  i"  identify  it. 


196  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

manuscript  are  now  wanting,  it  is  clear  that  the  scribe 
made  large  drafts  on  the  collection  without  feeling  bound 
to  arrange  the  legends  except  according  to  his  own  whim. 
In  1483  William  Caxton  printed  the  complete  translation, 
though  his  edition  varies  from  the  text  of  the  manuscripts 
in  many  particulars.  In  making  his  book,  Caxton  re-ar- 
ranged the  contents;  he  frequently  changed  the  wording; 
he  added  more  than  seventy  lives,  some  of  them  from  the 
appendix  of  the  Legenda  Aurea  and  others  from  French 
and  native  sources;  arid  he  inserted  the  celebrated  ety- 
mologies of  saints'  names,  which  had  been  left  out  of  the 
English  translation  in  its  earlier  state.  Indeed,  he  used 
so  much  liberty  that  he  made  the  book  virtually  a  new 
treasury  of  legends,  only  embodying  a  famous  collection 
as  the  chief  of  its  constituent  parts. 

This  rendering  of  the  Legenda  Aurea,  both  in  its  earlier 
and  later  stages,  represents  the  best  tradition  of  prose 
translation  in  the  fifteenth  century.  It  may  be  said  to 
stand  in  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  saints'  lives  as  Le 
Morte  Darthur  stands  to  romances.  Many  of  the  qualities 
that  distinguish  Malory's  work  are  present  in  this:  the 
fashion  in  which  it  was  put  together  as  a  compendium, 
the  spirit  which  informs  it,  and  even  the  style  in  which  it 
is  written.  It  has  neither  had,  to  be  sure,  nor  deserved,  the 
continuous  success  of  the  Morte  Darthur  ;  but  it  has  not 
deserved  the  oblivion  that  has  overtaken  it.  In  language 
it  stands  similarly  between  the  old  and  the  new.  The  un- 
dulations of  its  prose  should  please  many  readers  of  to- 
day, just  as  Malory's  readers  find  delight  in  his  style. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    197 

Caxton,  it  will  be  noticed,  was  working  on  the  two  books 
at  about  the  same  time:  he  printed  the  legends  in  1483, 
the  romances  in  1485.  He  was,  it  would  appear,  appre- 
ciative of  the  charms  of  each. 

In  the  second  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century,  another 
famous  Latin  legendary  was  epitomized  and  translated 
into  English  as  The  Kalendre  of  the  newe  Lege  ride  of  Eng- 
laride.    It  was  printed  by  Richard  Pynson  in  1516.     Of 
itself  it  would  call  for  comment  only  as  perhaps  the  last 
collection  of  saints'  lives  in  the  vernacular  that  was  made 
before  the  Reformation;  but  as  the  latest  form  of  a  work, 
the  life  of  which  extended  through  two  hundred  years, 
it  deserves  special  mention.    In  the  second  quarter  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  an  industrious  compiler,  John  of 
Tynemouth,  had  completed  a  great  Sanctilogium  Angliw, 
which  was  by  all  odds  the  most  complete  collection  of 
the  lives  of  saints  in  any  way  connected  with  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  that  had  ever  been  attempted.   Ap- 
parently he  had  labored  over  his  task  for  many  years  and 
garnered  his  materials  in  many  places,  though  he  seems 
chiefly  to  have  used  the  great  library  of  St.  Albans  both 
for  his  Sanctilogium  and  for  his  Historia  Aarea.    The 
Former  work  contained  the  lives  of  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
rii  saints,  excerpted,  abridged,  or  compiled,  as  well  as 
even  more  tales  of  various  kinds  that  illustrated  these 
and  other  Legends.  The  lives  were  arranged  in  the  order 
of  the  calendar.    In  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century 
this  collection  was  re-arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  en- 
larged by  the  insertion  of  many  narrationes,  and  given 


198  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

a  new  title:  De  Sanctis  Anglice.  This  revision  may  pos- 
sibly have  been  made  by  John  Capgrave,  a  learned 
Augustinian  who  wrote  both  in  Latin  and  in  English. 
Although  there  is  no  proof  that  he  had  a  hand  in  revising 
the  legendary,  his  name  has  been  more  commonly  asso- 
ciated with  it  than  that  of  its  original  compiler.  Again, 
early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  work  was  revised,  and 
enlarged  by  the  addition  of  fifteen  new  lives.  In  this  form 
it  was  known  as  Nova  Legenda  Anglian,  and  printed  by 
Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  1516,  the  same  year  in  which  the 
English  epitome  was  published. 

This  long  and  varied  history  was  not  merited  by  the 
literary  quality  of  the  work,  for  it  had  not  even  preten- 
sions to  value  of  that  sort;  but  theicompleteness  of  the 
collection  which  it  preserved  and  the  vast  though  un- 
critical erudition  which  it  embodied  gave  it  genuine 
worth.  Indeed,  it  is  indispensable  to  the  hagiologist  who 
is  interested  in  the  lives  of  British  saints,  concerning 
some  of  whom  we  have  no  other  record.  In  its  abridged 
English  form  it  has  less  importance,  naturally,  since  that 
was  intended  but  to  whet  the  reader's  appetite  for  the 
complete  work.  The  translation  indicates,  none  the  less, 
that  the  demand  for  collections  of  saints'  lives  in  the 
vernacular  had  not  spent  itself  as  the  Reformation 
approached. 

Three  books  of  instruction  and  edification,  two  from 
the  fourteenth  century  and  the  third  from  the  fifteenth, 
one  an  original  compilation  and  the  other  two  transla- 


TIIE   CONQUEST   TO  THE   REFORMATION     199 

tions,  may  serve  to  complete  the  illustrations  drawn  from 
collections  of  legends  as  to  the  importance  of  the  genre 
during  the  later  Middle  Ages. 

Of  portentous  length  and  of  facile,  if  very  crude,  work- 
manship, Cursor  Mundi  gave  its  readers  a  sketch  of 
sacred  history  from  the  creation  to  the  establishment  of 
the  Christian  Church,  the  whole  arranged  according  to 
the  seven  ages  of  the  world.  It  was  written  in  the  short 
rhyming  couplets  used  in  two  of  the  legendaries  already 
discussed.  Of  its  origin  nothing  is  known,  except  that 
it  was  made  in  the  North  about  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  Though  the  book  has  little  distinc- 
tion, save  of  purpose,  the  reader  is  sometimes  startled 
by  an  apt  phrase  that  seems  out  of  place  among  its  dull 
fellows.     The  author's  aim,  however,   was  sufficiently 

magnificent. 

All  this  world,  ar  this  hokc  Mine, 
\Yi<l  cristcs  help  i  sal  our-rine, 
And  telle  sum  ieste  principale. 

With  a  scheme  of  composition  so  wide  as  this,  he  nat- 
urally gathered  into  his  work  many  legendary  stories. 
Thus  he  incoTporated  in  rnsnarrative  the  entire  his- 
tory of  the  cross  from  the  mission  of  Seth  to  Paradise 
for  the  oil  of  mercy  to  the  finding  of  the  rood  by  St. 
Helena.  The  passages  which  he  took  from  this  tale  of 
marvels  he  sc.it  tered  through  his  book  in  proper  chron- 
ological  sequence.  As  Professor  Napier  showed  long 
sinee,  lie  took  the  material  for  his  version  from  two 
sources:  a  popular  Latin  prose  Legend  of  tin  Cross-Wood 


200  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

and  an  Old  French  poem  on  the  same  subject,  portions  of 
which  he  translated  almost   line  for  line.    Similarly  he 
drew  on  an  Old  French  poem  by  Wace,  L  'Etablissement 
de  la  fete  de  la  conception  Notre-Dame  for  elaborate  ac- 
counts of  the  conception  of  the  Virgin  and  the  beginning 
of  the  festival  in  celebration  of  it.  The  ever  popular  Gos- 
pel of  Pseudo-Matthew  and  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  furnished 
him  with  stories  of  the  childhood  of  Jesus  and  the  har- 
rowing of  Hell,  while  from  a  work  by  Isidore  of  Seville, 
De  Vita  et  Morte  Sanctorum,  he  took  a  complete  series 
of  romantic  narratives  dealing  with  the  apocryphal  acts 
of  the  apostles.    Furthermore  he  incorporated  with  his 
work  a  poem  on  the  Assumption  of  Mary,  which  had 
been  made  in  the  South  in  the  latter  part  of  the  previous 
century.    It  will   be  seen   that  the  author  of    Cursor 
Mundi  was  very  far  from  being  content  with  purely 
scriptural  incident.    Like  all  historians  of  the   Middle 
Ages,  he  was,  perforce,  a  legend-writer  also. 

In  the  translation  of  William  de  Wadington's  Manuel 
des  Pechiez,  made  by  Robert  Mannyng  of  Brunne  and 
quaintly  entitled  Handlyng  Synne,  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  we  find  the  same  conditions  present. 
Though  it  was  designed  as  a  moralizing  work,  it  became 
at  the  hands  of  its  compiler  and  translator  a  collection  of 
tales  as  well.  Robert,  indeed,  expanded  the  work  by  the 
insertion  of  new  stories.  His  version,  begun  in  1303  as 
he  himself  recorded,  contains  a  great  variety  of  legendary 
stories  aside  from  exempla  that  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the    saints.    There  are  many  incidents  from  the  Vitas 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    201 

Patrum  and  several  from  the  Dialogues  of  Gregory  the 
Great,  the  Vision  of  Furseus  from  Bede,  as  well  as  tales 
from  the  lives  of  Robert  Grosteste,  St.  Beatrice,  St.  John 
Almoner,  St.  Justine,  and  St.  John  Chrysostom.  More 
gifted  than  the  writer  of  Cursor  M undi,  this  Lincolnshire 
man,  Robert  Mannyng,  gaveTiis  stories  a  native  flavor 
and  a  considerable  interest  in  spite  of  —  or  perhaps  by 
means  of  — the  jogging  metre  that  he  used. 

A  third  repository  of  legendary  tales,  translated  from 
Latin  in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century,  is  entitled 
.  1  a  Alphabet  of  Talcs.  It  is  a  rendering  of  the  Alphabetum 
Narrationum,  once  ascribed  to  Etienne  de  Besancon  but 
now  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  Arnold  of  Liege.  One  of 
the  most  famous  collections  of  exempla  was  made  accessi- 
ble, through  this  translation,  to  English  readers.  Though 
primarily  designed  as  a  store-house  from  which  preachers 
might  take  illustrations  for  their  sermons,  the  book  has 
more  interest  than  could  be  expected  of  an  encyclopaedia. 
Either  in  Latin  or  in  English  —  for  the  English  rendering 
is  fluent  —  it  is  eminently  readable.  The  wealth  of  anec- 
dote from  v<ry  various  sources  that  it  contains  has  much 
to  attract  the  browsing  idler  and  much  to  teach  the 
serious  student.  Among  books  of  mediaeval  exempla  this 
was  not  1  he  Least  successful;  and  such  books  were  at  least 
next  of  kin  to  the  legendaries,  since  saints  figure  so  largely 

in  their  pages  among  philosophers  and  men  of  secular  life. 

The  foregoing  review  of  saints'  Lives,  as  they  appear  in 
legendaries  and  in  a  few  characteristic  works  of  history 

or  edification,   has,   I   hope,  shown  at  least    two  things: 


202  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

the  continuous  and  penetrating  interest  felt  by  all  classes 
of  society  in  the  legends  of  the  Church,  and  the  respon- 
siveness of  the  legendary  type  to  the  prevailing  influences 
and  tendencies  of  Middle  English  literature.  The  first 
point,  indeed,  is  illustrated  to  better  advantage  by  these 
collections  than  by  the  separate  lives  that  will  be  dis- 
cussed in  the  next  chapter;  the  second  will  be  further 
explained,  and  perhaps  better  explained,  by  a  study  of 
individual  legends,  which  varied  in  method  of  treatment 
and  in  the  emphasis  laid  on  one  or  another  element  of 
the  material,  according  to  the  taste  of  the  writer  and  of 
his  public.  It  will  be  evident,  I  think,  that  to  men  of  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  legends 
were  regarded  not  only  as  an  important  branch  of  lit- 
erature, but  as  indispensable:^Ood  for  the  intellect  and 
emotion  of  all  estates.  The  makers  of  these  books  of 
legends  discovered  no  new  way  of  setting  forth  the  sto- 
ries they  told,  no  new  fashion  of  appeal;  they  followed 
Latin  and  French  models,  in  general,  with  circumspec- 
tion if  not  with  servility.  The  personal  adaptation  of 
Osbern  Bokenam  was  exceptional.  What  the  collectors 
accomplished  was  the  provision  for  clergy  and  people  of 
extensive  and  readable  compendiums,  which  served  a 
great  variety  of  purposes.  Without  being  able  to  write 
great  poetry  or  prose,  they  gave  adequate  expression  to 
matters  that  were  attractive  of  themselves  both  to  the 
learned  and  the  simple.  The  public,  clearly,  made  no 
insistent  demand  for  beauty  of  form  if  only  the  substance 
were  at  hand. 


THE   CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION    203 

The  popularity  of  the  legend  type  during  this  age  is 
shown  by  a  comparison  between  the  collections  just  de- 
scribed and  the  romances  of  the  same  period.  Romances 
in  verse  and  prose  were  unquestionably  vastly  liked,  and 
the  genre  was  much  cultivated.  Yet  not  until  the  time  of 
Malory  was  a  compendium  of  even  one  branch  of  them 
ever  made  in  English.  'The  total  number  of  Middle  Eng- 
lish legends,  moreover,  is  considerably  greater  than  the 
total  number  of  romances.  Adventure  was  enhanced,  we 
may  suppose,  when  it  wore  the  livery  of  fact  and  had  the 
warrant  of  ecclesiastical  authority. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION.    II 
THE   COURSE   OF   THE    LEGEND 


HE  history  of  saints'  lives  during  the  Middle 
English  period  was  characterized  not  only  by 
the  making  of  collections,  which  we  have 
considered  in  the  previous  chapter,  but  by 
the  writing  of  individual  legends.  Separately  composed 
and  never  included  in  any  thesaurus,  except  as  they  were 
sometimes  brought  together  by  scribes  who  gathered 
diverse  materials  in  a  single  volume,  these  lives  in  verse 
and  prose  are  quite  as  important  as  the  great  series. 
They  represent,  indeed,  the  best  and  the  worst  of  legend- 
writing  during  the  period:  some  of  them  being  works 
admirable  for  literary  quality  and  biographical  interest, 
and  others  despicable  from  almost  any  point  of  view. 
It  will  be  illuminating  for  us  to  trace  their  course,  to 
see  how  responsive  they  were  to  the  spirit  of  the  age*, 
how  representative  of  its  literature.  The  mediums  in 
which  they  were  written  and  the  sources  from  which  they 
sprang  must  engage  our  attention.  Backward  glances, 
meanwhile,  at  the  great  collections  which  we  have  studied 
will  enable  us  to  see  the  development  of  the  genre  as  a 
whole  during  the  vigorous  and  interesting  centuries  that 
preceded  the  Reformation. 


'     THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    205 

Perhaps  the  phenomenon  that  first  impresses  one  when 
reviewing  the  period  is  the  complete  extinction  of  legend- 
writing  in  English  between  the  Norman  Conquest  and  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century.  As  has  been  noted  in  the 
chapter  on  prose  legends  in  Old  English,  it  is  sometimes 
hard  to  see  just  when  the  type,  as  far  as  English  was 
concerned,  trailed  off  into  silence.  The  silence  came,  none 
the  less.  Older  works  were  copied,  whether  in  a  spirit  of 
reaction  against  the  new  order,  or  simply  because  newer 
works  could  not  be  come  by,  we  do  not  know.  The  writ- 
ing of  Latin  legends  proceeded,  as  we  have  seen,  indus- 
triously and  even  brilliantly;  the  writing  of  legends  in 
French  was  established;  but  the  English  legend  was 
smothered.  At  least,  there  is  preserved  to  us  no  saintly 
biography  of  the  new  era,  either  in  English  verse  or  in 
English  prose,  that  can  by  any  possibility  be  dated  before 
the  closing  years  of  the  twelfth  century. 

The  eclipse  of  English  literature  after  the  Conquest  is 
sufficiently  familiar  to  all  of  us;  it  is  a  commonplace  of 
text-books.  It  has  been  so  much  emphasized,  indeed, 
thai  scholars  have  found  it  necessary  to  prove  at  length 

—  and  students  to  learn  by  the  discipline  of  dull  reading 

—  the  nexus  between  old  and  new.  It  has  been  needful 
to  -how  that  the  eclipse  did  not  mean  the  extinction  of  the 
English  language,  or  of  letters  in  England.  The  greal 
forms  were  not  forgotten.  Thus  the  legend  flourished,  in 
reality,  as  we  have  Been,  although  lives  of  saints  were  no 
longer  written  in  English.   Anglo-Norman  authors,  who 

wrote  freely,  had  no  reason  for  writing  other  than  their 


206  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

own  or  the  Latin  tongue.  It  is  not,  then,  surprising  that 
we  have  no  English  legend  from  the  twelfth  century  save 
a  fugitive  Vision  of  St.  Paul,  though  it  must  be  said  that 
in  the  case  of  no  other  literary  type  was  the  eclipse  more 
complete. 

This  Vision  of  St.  Paul,  indeed,  barely  falls  within  the 
limits  of  our  study.  It  is  a  prose  rendering  of  that  vision 
of  the  tortures  of  hell  which  Paul  saw  under  the  personal 
guidance  of  the  Archangel  Michael.  This  vision,  which 
was  to  be  several  times  versified  in  Middle  English  — 
known  also  to  Dante,  it  appears  —  was  translated  during 
the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  somewhere  in 
southwestern  England,  into  smooth  if  not  brilliant  prose. 
It  is  known  to  us  through  a  single  manuscript,  where  it 
is  found  imbedded  in  a  group  of  homilies;  and  it  is  sig- 
nificant as  a  late  example  of  a  pre-Conquest  fashion. 

When,  as  the  result  of  forces  too  complicated  for 
analysis  here  —  forces  ethnological  and  social  as  well  as 
political  —  English  began  once  more  to  be  important  as  a 
literary  medium,  lives  of  saints  had  swung  into  a  new 
orbit.  It  would  not  be  quite  fair  to  say  that  the  influence 
of  France  remained  dominant,  because  the  path  of  liter- 
ature for  Englishmen  no  less  than  Frenchmen  had  been 
changed.  English  and  French  authors  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries  wrote  in  much  the  same  fashion 
because  they  were  subject  to  the  same  influences.  They 
split  chiefly  in  the  matter  of  language;  for  a  considerable 
time,  at  least,  the  rise  of  nationality  did  not  otherwise 
greatly  affect  them.    The  influence  of  France  had  done 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    207 

its  work  by  the  thirteenth  century:  it  had  made  England 
over  in  the  matter  of  literature  as  in  many  other  ways. 
Thenceforward  there  can  be  traced,  but  only  very  grad- 
ually, a  progressive  separation  between  the  two  litera- 
tures, which  did  not  reach  its  widest  until  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century. 

Legends  merely  followed  the  course  of  other  genres. 
From  the  thirteenth  to  the  fifteenth  century  the  relations 
between  France  and  England,  whether  the  countries  were 
at  peace  or  at  war,  remained  too  intimate  for  an  inde- 
pendent species  of  the  type  to  develop  as  one  had  devel- 
oped in  Old  English  times.  Little  by  little,  variations  ap- 
peared —  national  peculiarities  cropped  out.  They  were, 
however,  comparatively  speaking,  unimportant.  In  that 
they  soon  ran  their  course  and  died  without  producing  a 
lasting  effect  on  later  literature,  they  were  barren  mani- 
festations. Had  it  not  been  for  the  Reformation,  another 
account  might  possibly  have  to  be  given  of  them;  but 
the  Reformation  cut  so  clean  across  the  history  of  the 
type  as  a  whole  that  speculation  as  to  what  might  have 
been  is  singularly  idle.  As  far  as  legends  are  concerned, 
the  Reformation  is  a  fact  of  quite  portentous  importance. 

We  have  seen  in  an  earlier  chapter  that  the  thirteenth 
century  was  the  time  when  the  Anglo-Norman  legend 
chiefly  flourished.  It  is  not  remarkable,  then,  thai  during 
thi>  time  there  should  have  been  produced  comparatively 
few  Uvea  of  saints  in  English. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  or 
possibly  -oine  tew  years  before  it  opened,  three  legends 


208  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

were  written  somewhere  in  the  south  of  England  which 
mark  the  reviving  practice.  It  is  perhaps  not  without 
significance,  in  view  of  the  cult  of  woman  which  by  this 
time  had  become  focussed,  through  passionate  devotion, 
on  the  Mother  of  the  Lord,  that  these  three  works  should 
be  lives  of  women  saints.  They  were,  moreover,  the  lives 
of  three  virgins  who  stood  pre-eminently  for  the  ideal  of 
chastity:  Catharine  of  Alexandria,  Margaret,  and  Juliana. 
The  opinion,  held  by  scholars  at  one  time,  that  all  three 
biographies  were  the  work  of  one  man,  the  author  of  the 
Ancren  Riwle  (or  Rule  of  Nuns),  has  been  discarded;  but 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  same  impulse  that  led 
to  the  instruction  of  the  three  high-born  anchoresses  in 
the  duties  and  privileges  of  their  lot  resulted  also  in  the 
celebration  of  the  three  martyrs  of  the  early  church. 

As  has  been  shown  by  Professor  Einenkel,  the  Cathar- 
ine was  probably  written  before  the  other  two  works  and 
was  known  to  the  author  of  them.  The  three  legends 
bear  a  marked  resemblance  to  one  another,  however,  in 
content  and  style  as  well  as  in  language.  The  lives  of 
Margaret  and  Juliana  had  earlier  been  treated  in  English ; 
but  St.  Catharine,  the  most  famous  of  the  three,  had 
never  before  been  the  subject  of  an  English  legend.  In- 
deed, the  story  of  this  militant  defender  of  the  faith  did 
not  become  generally  known  in  the  West  until  the  tenth 
and  eleventh  centuries  —  too  late  for  use  by  the  pre- 
Conquest  hagiographers  —  though  it  had  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages  so  remarkable  a  vogue.  It  furnishes  the 
extremest  case  of  a  virgin  combating,  not  without  inso- 


THE   CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION    209 

lence,  the  powers  of  evil;  and  as  such  it  made  its  appeal. 
One  cannot  deny  that  the  Middle  Ages  liked  to  be  hit 

hard  on  any  occasion  by  the  dominant  idea.  The  legends 
of  Margaret  and  Juliana,  as  well  as  of  Catharine,  seem 
to  our  taste  harshly  crude;  yet  they  satisfied  earlier  gen- 
erations, no  doubt,  by  the  very  characteristics  that  seem 
to  us  unfortunate. 

The  three  early  Middle  English  legends  that  we  are 
considering  have  no  remarkable  literary  graces.  All  three 
are  written,  indeed,  in  a  curious  alliterative  prose  that 
has  been  considered  by  some  scholars  (without  warrant, 
I  believe)  a  form  of  verse;  but  this  stylistic  peculiarity 
is  rather  an  affected  mannerism  than  an  instrument  of 
art,  and  does  little  or  nothing  to  make  them  acceptable 
narratives.  The  author  of  the  Catharine  curtailed  very 
greatly  the  long  harangues  and  learned  allusions  that 
ornamented  his  Latin  original,  yet  he  did  not  altogether 
rescue  the  story  from  tedium.  His  greatest  gift  lay  in 
picturesque  turns  of  descriptive  phrase  and  occasional 
passages  of  dramatic  vividness.  He  was  like  a  Cynewulf 
tf>  whom  had  been  denied  the  power  of  fusing  his  materials 
into  organic  unity  and  of  sustaining  his  glowing  vision  for 
long  at  a  time.  His  most  successful  passage  is  a  picture 
of  Paradise,  Beemingly  based  on  the  same  Latin  text  as 

an   Old    High    GermaD    poem   called   Iliiinnrl    iiml   Ifrllr. 

Had  lie  been  able  to  reach  more  frequently  Hi"  heighl  of 
romantic  beauty  thai  makes  this  interpolation  memo- 
rable, lie  would  deserve  a  place  between  Cynewulf  and 
the  author  of  the  Pearl.    Unhappily  bis  moments  of  in- 


210  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

spiration  were  few,  though  the  Catharine,  as  compared 
with  the  Margaret  and  the  Juliana,  is  a  work  of  con- 
siderable merit.  Nowhere  do  the  latter  rise  above  com- 
monplace translations  of  the  somewhat  commonplace 
Latin  passions  upon  which  they  were  based,  and  as 
translations  they  are  by  no  means  adequate.  Only  be- 
cause of  their  chronological  position  do  they  have  much 
significance. 

More  important  in  every  respect  is  a  much-copied 
poetical  life  of  St.  Margaret,  Meidan  Margerete,  which 
was  composed  in  Dorsetshire  or  the  vicinity  during  the 
first  half  of  the  century.  The  oldest  manuscript  of  the 
work  that  we  possess  1  does  not  represent  the  text  in  its 
purity:  it  had  already  suffered  considerably  from  the 
carelessness  of  scribes.  At  the  same  time,  it  retains  the 
essential  characteristics  of  the  poem  unimpaired  and 
enables  one  to  judge,  much  better  than  from  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  century  copies  that  have  come  down 
to  us,  its  vigor  and  grace.  Whether  or  not  the  original 
manuscript  was  a  translation  from  a  poem  in  Old  French 
I  am  as  yet  unable  to  say,  though  I  suspect  this  to  have 
been  the  case.2  In  any  event,  it  depended  ultimately,  as 
Dr.  Krahl  showed  long  since,  on  the  same  Latin  prose 
version  that  was  the  source  of  the  Margaret  discussed 
above  —  the    text    of    Mombritius.    It  represents   the 

1  Printed  by  Hickes,  Thesaurus,  i,  224  ff.  and  after  him  by  Cock- 
ayne, Seinte  Marhcrete  (E.E.T.S.  13)  pp.  34  ff.,  and  Horstmann,  Al- 
tenglische  Legenden  N.  F.  pp.  488  ff.,  from  MS.  Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  B. 
14.39,  missing  from  the  library  from  18G3  to  1896. 

2  It  was  not  based  on  any  Anglo-Norman  version  yet  published. 


TIIE  CONQUEST  TO  TIIE  REFORMATION    211 

Latin,  however,  in  quite  a  different  way.  The  poet 
was  not  content  with  translation:  he  transformed  the 
legend  in  the  spirit  and  style  of  the  romances  that  were 
beginning  to  be  greatly  in  vogue.  He  made  of  the  legend 
a  new  work,  swift  of  movement,  vivid  of  detail,  and  yet 
reverent  of  attitude.  The  figure  of  the  saint  became  a 
most  appealing  one  in  its  maidenly  purity  and  flaming 
audacity.  Among  the  many  mediaeval  representations  of 
the  ever  popular  St.  Margaret,  none  brings  out  more 
clearly  the  artistic  and  spiritual  possibilities  of  the  theme. 
The  dry  light  of  the  Latin  passion  is  flooded  with  warmth 
by  the  poet's  imaginative  conception  of  the  young  saint. 
Somewhat  more  than  three  hundred  lines  in  monorhymed 
quatrains  sufficed  him  for  his  picture:  adequate  in  every 
respect  to  the  requirements  of  the  genre  at  its  best.  In 
rhythm,  in  dialogue,  and  in  description  the  poem  recalls 
the  better  traditional  ballads,  just  as  do  some  of  the  earlier 
English  romances.  To  that  extent  it  may  perhaps  be  said 
to  represent  a  native  modification  of  Anglo-Norman  liter- 
ary fashions.  Though  the  text  we  possess  is  marred  by 
errors,  three  detached  stanzas  may  give  some  notion  of 
the  qualities  of  the  poem  as  it  left  the  hand  of  its  maker. 
The  first  is  part  of  the  appeal  of  the  tyrant  Olibrius  to 
Margaret;  the  second  and  third  are  descriptive  of  her 
martyrdom. 

F.<  f  on  me  ant  l>c  my  wif!   l'ul  wcl  tti«'  mai  spede: 
Auntioge  an<l  Asie  Bcaltou  lwiv  to  tnede; 
Cidatoun  .-mi  purpd  pal  Kaltou  have  to  (rede; 
\\i<l  ;ill<-  the  metea  of  my  loud  ful  wd  i  s<;il  the  fode. 


212  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Tho  ho  com  widout  the  toun  ther  me  ir  sculde  slo, 
Al  siwede  hire  that  ever  mitte  go. 
The  wind  bigun  to  blowen;  the  sonne  wert  al  bio; 
Thet  folc  fel  to  then  erthe,  ne  wisten  ho  hire  nout  tho. 

Michael  ant  Gabriel  ant  Raffael,  here  fere, 
Cherubin  ant  Serafin,  a  thousend  ther  were; 
Mit  tapres  ant  mit  sensers  to  hevene  he  ir  bere, 
To  hore  loverdes  blisse;  ho  was  ym  lef  ant  dere. 

To  realize  how  uneven  was  the  success  of  the  attempt 
to  turn  legendary  material  into  the  mould  of  romance, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  consider,  in  contrast  to  Meidan 
Margerete,  a  St.  Eustace  written  about  the  middle  of  the 
century.  This  poem,  in  the  common  tail-rhyme  stanza  of 
six  verses,  was  also  made  in  southwestern  England  and 
was  probably  translated  from  an  Old  French  version;  but 
it  has  nothing  of  the  charm  of  the  slightly  earlier  work. 
The  events  of  the  story  are  confused.  It  lacks  even  the 
personal  names  that  might  give  a  sense  of  reality  and 
vividness.  As  far  as  there  is  any  attempt  at  painting  the 
scenes  in  the  saint's  life,  they  are  conventionalized  into 
insignificance.  A  story  of  romantic  possibilities  is  spoiled 
by  the  crudity  of  its  presentation;  it  has  been  squeezed 
dry  of  emotion  and  well-nigh  of  sense.  By  such  poor 
imitations  of  the  meaner  romances  the  legend  could  not 
thrive. 

Of  a  different  stamp  was  an  Assumption  of  Our  Lady, 
the  oldest  form  of  which  seems  to  have  been  made  in  one 
of  the  middle  southern  counties  not  long  after  1250. 
The  author  of   this  legend,  which  became  immensely 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    213 

popular,  did  not  ape  the  writers  of  romance,  but  appealed 
straightforwardly  to  the  religious  sense  of  his  audience. 
Whatever  merit  the  performance  possesses  is  due  to  the 
simplicity  of  this  appeal.  Quite  without  affectation,  it 
rehearses  the  apocryphal  life  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  after 
the  death  of  Christ  and  relates  with  dramatic  detail  the 
circumstances  of  her  passing  from  earth  to  heaven.  Pale 
figures  move  and  speak  against  a  background  as  pallid 
as  themselves.  The  verse  is  clumsy  rather  than  supple: 
the  common  four-stressed  rhyming  pairs  show  not  infre- 
quent use  of  assonance.  The  diction  is  colorless,  and  too 
often  tags  fill  out  the  measure.  Despite  these  faults,  how- 
ever, the  poem  has  some  of  the  good  qualities  of  early 
religious  painting  —  a  similar  directness  in  applying 
means  to  the  given  end.  Religious  instruction  and  reli- 
gious inspiration,  in  a  spirit  of  sweet  naturalness,  were 
the  evident  purposes  of  the  author.  The  faintly  humor- 
ous touch,  by  which  St.  Thomas  of  India  is  twitted 
with  being  a  little  late  on  iniportant  occasions,  marks 
the  wholesome  tone  of  naive  realism. 

It  was,  no  doubt,  this  spirit  in  the  narrative  rather 
than  its  absolute  literary  excellence  that  gave  it  wide  and 
long-continued  popularity.  It  was  incorporated  with  both 
the  southern  and  the  northern  legend  cycles;  it  was  taken 
over  by  the  author  of  Cursor  Mundi;  it  was  turned,  in  the 
Midlands,  into  an  independent  poem  in  tail-rhyme  stan- 
zas. Indeed,  the  transformation  involved  by  the  change 
from  the  original  metre  to  the  long  couplets  <>f  the  South' 
English  Legendary  was  a  considerable  one.     Since  the. 


214  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

manuscripts  containing  the  work  range  in  date  from  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, it  is  evident  that  for  about  two  hundred  years  the 
poem  was  prized  throughout  the  whole  of  England.  In- 
terpretative as  it  was  of  the  best  religious  sentiment  of 
the  age,  it  merited  its  continued  fame;  nor,  viewed  in  this 
light,  can  it  properly  be  despised  by  us. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century,  also,  must  have  been 
written  the  first  form  of  The  Harrowing  of  Hell,  the  ear- 
liest rendering  of  any  part  of  the  Latin  Gospel  of  Nico- 
demus  that  was  attempted  in  Middle  English.  It  has  the 
further  interest  of  its  narrative  method,  which  is  semi- 
dramatic.  Save  for  the  prologue,  the  entire  action  is 
given  by  speeches  definitely  assigned  to  various  person- 
ages of  the  story.  On  this  account  it  has  long  been  re- 
garded as  the  earliest  specimen  of  drama  in  English,  and 
has  enjoyed,  to  a  corresponding  degree,  the  fame  that 
novelty  brings.  The  opinion  of  scholars  has  not  been 
unanimous,  to  be  sure,  about  its  precise  relationship  to 
the  miracle  plays  that  were  to  come;  but  the  interest  in 
it  has  been  continuous.  For  my  own  part,  I  am  unable 
to  believe  that  it  should  be  regarded  as  a  conscious  effort 
towards  dramatic  representation,  even  of  an  academic 
sort.  That  it  illustrates,  however,  the  impulse  which  was 
to  make  drama  a  powerful  literary  agency  at  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages  I  am  not  inclined  to  deny.  It  is  more 
valuable  from  this  point  of  view,  indeed,  than  as  a  legend, 
since  in  the  latter  respect  it  is  merely  a  reworking  of  the 
Descensus  Christi  ad  Infernos.   In  its  own  day  the  poem 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    215 

must  have  won  a  very  considerable  popularity.  The  three 
manuscripts  by  which  it  is  known  to  us,  none  of  them 
later  than  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  vary  so 
widely  in  the  text  they  present  that  we  must  suppose  it 
to  have  been  many  times  copied.  These  variations  make 
it  difficult  to  determine  the  dialect  in  which  the  poem 
was  first  written;  but  the  rather  inadequate  evidence  that 
we  have  points  to  the  East  Midland  district  as  the  home 
of  the  author. 

From  the  last  quarter  of  the  century,  as  nearly  as  it 
can  be  dated,  comes  a  long  poem  on  the  Childhood  of 
Jesus,  known  to  us  only  by  a  copy  in  the  oldest  manu- 
script of  the  South-English  Legendary.  It  is  a  work  of 
nearly  two  thousand  lines,  in  short  rhyming  couplets, 
and  recounts  an  extraordinary  number  of  the  adventures 
attributed  to  Christ  by  the  writers  of  the  apocryphal 
gospels.  M.  Paul  Meyer  showed,  as  long  ago  as  1889, 
that  the  English  poem  was  a  translation  from  a  thirteenth 
century  Enfances  Jesus  Christ,  of  which  two  redactions 
are  extant.  He  was  wrong,  I  believe,  in  thinking  that 
the  translation  was  made  from  the  earlier  form  of  the 
two;  indeed,  it  seems  to  me  quite  clearly  an  almost  literal 
rendering  of  the  later  form,  which  was  made  by  an  Anglo- 
Norman  versifier.  In  any  case,  the  English  poem  owes 
nothing  save  its  halting  verse  to  the  translator  from  the 

southern  counties.  The  French  author,  on  the  other 
hand,  appears  to  have  taken  his  material  from  two  differ- 
ent Latin  texts  (the  Gospel  of  Pseudo-Matthew  and  a  book 

popular  in  the  thirteenth  century,  entitled  De  Iiifautia 


216  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Salvatoris) ;  and  the  realistic  tone  in  which  the  fantastic 
miracles  are  related  was  certainly  due  to  him.  The  im- 
portance of  the  work,  as  far  as  England  is  concerned,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  account  of  incidents  in  the 
apocryphal  life  of  Christ  destined  to  become  deeply  im- 
bedded in  the  consciousness  of  the  people.  Of  a  northern 
Childhood  I  shall  speak  below;  a  recently  discovered  bal- 
lad, The  Bitter  Withy,  echoes  two  or  three  of  the  events; 
and,  more  distantly,  the  chap-book  History  of  Tom  Thumb 
shows  how  one  of  the  stories  entered  into  the  imagination 
of  the  English  country-side. 

Certain  other  thirteenth  century  legends  in  verse  may 
perhaps  best  be  considered  in  connection  with  their  ap- 
pearance in  a  celebrated  miscellany  known  as  the  Auch- 
inleck  Manuscript,  which  belongs  to  the  Advocates'  Li- 
brary of  Edinburgh.  Into  this  book  there  was  gathered, 
during  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  variety 
of  works  both  secular  and  religious.  Among  them  the 
scribe  included  eight  legends :  Gregory,  St.  Patrick's  Pur- 
gatory, Adam  and  Eve,  The  Harrowing  of  Hell,  Margaret, 
Catharine,  Mary  Magdalene,  and  The  Birth  of  Mary  and 
Christ.  The  Harrowing  of  Hell  has  been  described  above, 
the  Margaret  is  a  poor  text  of  the  Meidan  Margerete 
already  described,  and  The  Birth  of  Mary  and  Christ  is 
from  the  South-English  Legendary.  The  other  poems, 
however,  deserve  mention  as  illustrating  the  various 
kinds  of  verse  legends  in  vogue  at  the  end  of  the  thir- 
teenth century. 

The  Gregory,  which  is  found  also  in  two  other  manu- 


THE   COXQl'EST  TO  THE   REFORMATION    217 

scripts,  tells  in  simple  stanzas  of  eight  four-beat  lines,  and 
without  art.  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  tales  ever 
invented.    The  story  connects  itself,  supposedly,  with 
Gregory  the  Great,  though   nothing  more  radically  dif- 
ferent from  the  life  of  that  saint  could  be  imagined  than 
this  tissue  of  impossibilities.    With  its  motives  of  double 
incest,  of  a  key  cast  into  the  ocean  to  be  found  again  in 
the  belly  of  a  fish,  and  of  an  unwelcome  child  thrown  into 
the  sea,  there  is  no  lack  of  sensational  incident.    The 
English  poem,  which  was  translated  in  the  East  Midlands 
from  a  French  version  of  the  tale,  is  a  very  crude  per- 
formance. Although  imperfectly  preserved  to  us  even  in 
the  oldest  manuscript  (Vernon),  it  is  evident  that  the 
translation  was  badly  done.   Very  darkly  in  the  English 
form  can  be  seen  the  well-wrought  outlines  of  the  wild 
story,  which  had  been  firmly  established  in  popular  favor 
by  the  setting  of  knightly  manners  that  it  exhibited. 
Some  traces  of  the  trappings  of  romance  remain,  together 
with  a  sober  deference  to  lofty  estate,  secular  or  religious, 
which  romance-writers  often  exhibited.   To  nothing  save 
a  taste  for  extravagant  fiction  could  the  legend  ever  have 
ministered;  and  indeed,  its  combination  of  the  theme 
of  (Edipus  with  incidents  common  to  folk-story  served, 
after  transformation,  to  enrich  the  stock  of  secular  ro- 
mance.  Professor  J.  D.  Bruce  has  made  this  clear. 

St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  a  poem  in  six-line  tail-rhyme 
stanzas,  seems  to  have  been  composed  in  the  Ivist  Mid- 
land district.     It    was  a  free  rendering  —  the  first,  save 

perhaps  a  version  in  the  South-English  Lrycwlanj      <>f 


218  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  remarkable  vision  of  the  other  world  written  by 
Henry  of  Saltrey  towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century. 
Henry's  Latin  book,  usually  known  as  Tractatus  de  Pur- 
gatorio,  gained  immediate  popularity  and  was  transcribed 
and  adapted  with  bewildering  frequency.  Indeed,  its 
long  history  in  literature  and  folk  tradition  makes  it,  pos- 
sibly, the  most  influential  vision  of  the  sort  except  Dante's 
own.  The  version  of  the  Auchinleck  MS.  was  made  by 
a  poet  of  real  imaginative  attainment.  Although  he  had 
no  metrical  facility  and  was  sometimes  clumsy  about 
passing  from  scene  to  scene,  he  had  a  very  real  power 
of  description.  The  adventures  of  the  knight  Owain 
amidst  the  torments  of  Purgatory  and  the  delights  of 
the  Terrestrial  Paradise  were  told  with  a  vividness  and 
a  personal  grace  that  make  the  poem  compare  not  un- 
favorably with  the  Espurgatoire  of  Marie  de  France.  The 
unknown  poet  was  a  lover  of  beautiful  sound  and  color, 
and  was  fond  of  the  catalogues  so  often  successfully  used 
by  mediaeval  writers.  A  single  stanza  must  suffice  to 
show  the  quality  of  his  verse  at  its  best. 

Fair  were  her  erbers  with  floures, 
Rose  and  lili  divers  coloures, 

Primrol  and  parvink, 
Mint,  fetherfoy,  and  eglentere, 
Calombin  and  mo  ther  were 

Than  ani  man  mai  bithenke. 

The  Adam  and  Eve  of  the  Auchinleck  MS.  is  a  fragment 
in  short  rhyming  couplets.  It  is  a  translation,  or  rather 
a  new  arrangement,  of  material  found  in  the  Vita  Adx 
el  Evce,  which  is  closely  connected  with  the  treatise  De 


'      THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    219 

Ligno  Sanctcr  Cruris.  Both  these  works  were  used  other- 
wise by  English  writers  in  verse  and  prose.  To  the 
History  of  the  Holy  Rood-Tree  reference  has  already  been 
made;  and  the  compilers  of  Cursor  Mundi  and  the  North- 
English  Homily  Collection  also  drew  upon  the  legends. 
Later  uses  of  them  will  be  taken  up  in  due  course.  The 
complicated  relationships  of  all  the  versions  in  Latin  and 
the  vernacular  cannot  well  be  summarized  briefly.  The 
relationships  are  of  less  importance  to  us,  at  the  moment, 
however,  than  the  fact  that  the  poem  mentioned  above 
attests  the  continued  interest  in  the  story  past  the  Con- 
quest and  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  frag- 
ment from  this  period  begins  with  a  brief  account  of  the 
fall  of  man.  After  narrating  Seth's  journey  to  Paradise 
for  the  oil  of  mercy,  and  Adam's  death,  it  succinctly  re- 
ports the  history  of  the  world  to  the  Deluge. 

Of  a  very  different  movement  from  the  poem  just  dis- 
cussed is  the  Catharine,  the  third  of  the  new  legends  in 
the  Auchinleck  MS.  This  poem  of  ninety-nine  eight-line 
stanzas  is  one  of  the  most  successful  versions  of  the  legend 
of  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria  that  has  ever  been  penned. 
]5y  curtailing  the  long  harangues  and  by  narrating  the 
events  of  her  trial  and  martyrdom  with  breathless  vigor, 
the  author  made  of  it  a  most  exciting  narrative.  One 
would  think  less  well  of  the  poem,  to  be  sure,  if  we  were 
dependent  for  our  knowledge  of  it  upon  the  Auchinleck 

MS.     Happily,   a   better  text  exists  in  a   inanuseript    of 

Cains  College,  Cambridge.  The  art  of  this  Midland  peel 

of  the  later  thirteenth  century  was  an  art  of  haste:  at  a 


220  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

furious  gallop  he  plunged  through  the  story.  Neverthe- 
less, he  did  no  wrong  to  the  heroic  elements  in  the  pas- 
sion, but  rather  intensified  them  by  his  headlong  style. 
Very  much  as  the  author  of  Havelok  the  Dane,  a  popular 
romance  of  the  day,  got  his  effects  by  rapidity  and  energy, 
this  poet  achieved  vividness  through  vigor.  The  two 
writers,  no  doubt,  had  in  mind  very  much  the  same  kind 
of  audience.  That  the  English  maker  of  the  legend  was 
a  wholly  independent  poet,  however,  seems  to  me  unlikely. 
I  have  a  strong  impression,  as  yet  unconfirmed  by  proof, 
that  he  was  turning  an  Anglo-Norman  version  of  the 
legend  into  English,  and  that  some  of  the  merits  of  the 
work  are  due  to  his  original.  At  the  same  time,  there 
would  be  much  to  praise,  even  should  this  be  true. 

Less  important  than  the  Catharine  in  every  way  is  the 
Mary  Magdalene  of  the  Auchinleck  MS.  The  loss  of  the 
opening  lines  of  this  pedestrian  piece  of  verse-making 
in  rhymed  couplets  cannot  be  greatly  regretted,  for  the 
legend  has  no  marked  value  except  in  relation  to  other 
versions  of  the  story  from  the  same  general  period.  One 
of  these,  the  Mary  Magdalene  which  is  found  in  various 
manuscripts  of  the  South-English  Legendary,  is  a  poem  of 
very  considerable  merit.  It  was  written  farther  south  in 
the  Midlands  than  the  Auchinleck  version  and  in  the 
long  couplets  of  the  Legendary  to  which  it  became  at- 
tached.1   Its  date,  apparently,  was  about  1275  or  a  little 

1  A  theory  of  Horstmann's  that  it  was  originally  composed  in  stan- 
zaic  form  was  satisfactorily  disposed  of  by  Knork  in  his  Berlin  disser- 
tation of  1889. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    221 

earlier.  The  romantic  tale  of  the  Magdalene's  apostolate 
in  Provence,  which  for  many  centuries  was  regarded  as 
sober  history,  was  here  related  in  a  fitting  style,  pictur- 
esque of  phrase,  rapid  of  movement.  Another  version, 
found  in  one  of  the  expanded  forms  of  the  North-English 
Homily  Collection,  is  less  good,  though  more  vigorous 
than  the  Auchinleck  poem.  The  relationship  among  these 
three  variants  of  the  theme,  which  have  various  points  of 
contact,  and  an  unpublished  poem  in  a  Cottonian  manu- 
script (Titus  A  XXVI)  awaits  investigation.  That  they 
were  taken,  more  or  less  directly,  from  the  same  Latin 
source,  is  clear;  but  only  so  much. 

From  the  latter  end  of  the  century  comes  also  a  legend 
of  Marina,  preserved  to  us  in  the  very  interesting  Harle- 
ian  manuscript  (2258)  that  contains  our  best  collection  of 
early  Middle  English  lyrics.  This  Marina  is  an  undis- 
tinguished piece  of  versification  in  rhyming  couplets, 
probably  made  in  the  western  part  of  southern  England. 
It  tells,  rather  clumsily,  the  story  of  the  maiden  who  was 
introduced  into  a  convent  of  monks,  where  she  lived  as 
a  man  until  her  death,  not  without  penitential  sufferings. 
The  theme  was  a  favorite  one  with  mediaeval  collectors 
of  (xnnj)la,  and  this  tale  is  among  the  best-known  ex- 
cerpts from  the  Vita  Patrum.  The  Harleian  version 
I  reatly  resembles  a  slightly  later  one  in  the  North-English 
limn  ill/  Collection,  and  at  some  points  the  two  disagree 
with  the  Latin  texts  that  we  know.  However,  the  north- 
ern poem  was  probably  an  independent  translation,  aa  it 
is  certainly  a  terser  and  more  vigorous  piece  of  work. 


222  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

At  about  the  same  time  were  written  two  metrical 
versions  of  the  Vision  of  St.  Paul,  which  had  already  been 
translated  in  prose.  The  first  of  these  new  renderings  is 
curious  in  two  ways.  For  one  thing,  it  discards  the  usual 
machinery  incident  to  St.  Paul's  visit  in  Hell,  and  con- 
sists merely  of  a  recital  of  the  eleven  pains  of  Hell  by  a 
man  returned  from  death.  In  the  second  place,  the  in- 
troductory verses  are  French,  although  the  poem  is  en- 
tirely independent  of  any  treatment  of  the  Vision  in  Old 
French  that  has  as  yet  been  found.  However,  the  writer, 
who  subscribed  himself  Hugh,  may  well  have  translated 
some  version  unknown  to  our  day.  Nothing  whatever  has 
been  discovered  concerning  this  Hugh,  save  that  he  must 
have  lived  in  southern  England.  His  work  is  not  im- 
portant, except  as  a  curiosity,  for  he  had  no  great  skill 
as  a  legend- writer. 

The  second  of  these  new  forms  of  the  Vision  follows 
one  of  the  commoner  versions  of  the  Latin  text,  and  was 
doubtless  a  direct  revision  of  it.  Though  preserved  only 
in  an  important  manuscript  of  the  South-English  Leg- 
endary (Laud  108),  this  poem  in  tail-rhyme  stanzas  was 
probably  made  in  the  northern  part  of  the  East  Midland 
district.  It  has  no  special  merit  as  a  translation  or  as  a 
piece  of  verse  narrative.  Indeed,  the  freedom  with  which 
the  original  was  treated  added  nothing  to  the  effective- 
ness of  the  vision.  Sufficiently  clear,  but  not  particularly 
interesting  from  either  the  literary  or  the  hagiographical 
point  of  view,  the  work  need  not  detain  us. 

At  the  end  of  the  century  also,  as  nearly  as  the  date  can 


TIIE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    223 

be  determined,  was  composed  a  very  interesting  poem  on 
Jacob  and  Joseph,  which  its  editor  somewhat  uncertainly 
ascribes  to  the  southern  part  of  the  Midlands.  It  was 
written  in  the  long  flowing  couplets  of  the  South-English 
Legendary,  and  in  style  irresistibly  recalls  that  work, 
though  it  seems  never  to  have  been  a  part  of  it.  It  recalls 
also,  be  it  said,  the  Meidan  Margcrete  of  the  earlier  part 
of  the  century,  and  has  some  of  the  merits  of  that  charm- 
ing legend.  The  same  tradition  of  romantic  minstrelsy, 
no  doubt,  lay  behind  all  such  writers:  a  tradition  that 
was  eventually  to  give  us  the  better  English  ballads  and 
much  good  modern  narrative  verse.  The  materials  of 
Jacob  and  Joseph  were  taken  from  the  Old  Testament 
without  large  addition;  but  they  were  treated  with  a 
breadth  of  human  feeling  that  makes  the  figures  of  the 
story  live  again  in  the  poet's  swinging  rhythms.  Badly 
though  the  work  has  fared  at  the  hands  of  copyists,  its 
dramatic  vividness  and  its  homely  grace  have  not  been 
wholly  obscured.  Take,  for  example,  the  entrance  of  the 
merchants  with  the  young  Joseph  into  "Egypt  land." 
The  picture  that  one  gets  is  of  a  band  of  merchants  com- 
ing into  a  rich  mediaeval  city,  gay  with  color,  pulsing 
with  life.  Whether  written  in  or  out  of  a  monastery, 
J (vnh  and  Joseph  is  no  product  of  cloistered  anaemia,  but 
of  the  vigorous  current  that  flowed  through  the  Church 
to  better  the  life  of  the  times.  The  boy  who  heard  i\  once 
read  or  recited  would  never,  we  may  be  sun-,  forget  the 
story  of  Joseph's  adventures. 
The  great  South-English  Legendary,  described  in  the 


224  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

chapter  preceding  this,  was  brought  together,  we  must 
remember,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  thirteenth  century; 
at  about  the  time,  that  is,  of  the  legends  just  discussed. 
It  shows  the  activity  of  the  type  in  the  Southwest  towards 
the  end  of  the  century,  as  the  individual  legends  indicate 
its  popularity  in  other  parts  of  the  South  and  in  the  Mid- 
lands. In  the  course  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  North 
of  England  was  to  witness  a  very  considerable  production 
of  legends  in  the  vernacular,  but  for  some  not  very  evident 
reason  the  form  did  not  win  renewed  acceptance  there 
until  that  time.  It  may  well  be  that  the  feudal  rule  of 
the  Norman  nobles  delayed  the  reaction  to  English  writ- 
ing north  of  the  Humber  somewhat  longer  than  in  the 
South,  partly  because  the  district  was  remote  and  less 
open  to  the  influences  of  the  growing  nationalism.  If  so, 
the  wars  of  Edward  I  with  Scotland  must  have  helped  to 
spread  the  new  spirit,  for  Northumberland  became  again, 
as  in  former  ages,  the  highway  of  armies. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  indeed,  that  almost  all  the  legends 
from  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  were  written 
in  the  North.  In  that  section,  as  we  have  learned,  the 
North-English  Homily  Collection,  one  of  the  great  reposi- 
tories of  saintly  lore,  was  compiled  soon  after  the  century 
opened.  Aside  from  it,  only  a  handful  of  saints'  lives  was 
produced  until  about  1350,  but  not  one  of  these  was 
written  in  a  Southern  dialect.  Quite  possibly  the  disturbed 
conditions  incident  upon  the  misrule  of  Edward  II  may 
be  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  shift  of  legendary  produc- 
tion, or  at  least  for  the  failure  of  southern  writers  to  con- 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    225 

tinue  their  earlier  activity.  Whatever  the  cause,  the 
break  is  well  marked. 

Between  L'jOO  and  13^,5  there  were  written  in  the 
North  a  verse  rendering  of  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemvs.  and 
a  poem  on  the  Childhood  of  Jesus  which  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  one  made  towards  the  end  of  the  pre- 
ceding century. 

As  we  have  seen,  themes  from  the  apocryphal  gospels 
had  for  centuries  been  favorites  in  England;  but  before 
1300  no  one  had  attempted  a  poetical  translation  of  the 
popular  Gospel  of  Nicodemus.  The  success  of  the  under- 
taking, as  far  as  the  Middle  Ages  are  concerned,  can  be 
estimated  from  the  fact  that  the  four  manuscripts  of  the 
poem  now  known  were  written  a  century  or  more  after 
the  translation  was  first  made,  and  imply  the  existence  of 
numerous  other  copies.  Moreover,  as  Dr.  Craigie  has 
shown,  the  York  cycle  of  miracle  plays  borrowed  exten- 
sively from  the  poem.  The  popularity  that  it  enjoyed  was, 
indeed,  well  merited  by  its  qualities.  Though  rudely  exe- 
cuted, it  is  ingenious:  in  metre  the  elaborate  twelve-line 
stanzas  in  which  it  is  written  requiring  a  degree  of  skill 
for  their  making  that  would  baffle  most  modern  poets. 
In  spite  of  the  self-imposed  difficulties  of  his  task,  the 
poei  succeeded  in  weaving  his  rhythm  into  the  long  nar- 
rative (about  eighteen  hundred  lines)  with  dramatic  vigor 

and  a  qoI  inconsiderable  degree  of  romantic  feeling.  Like 
the  verse  of  tin-  better  miracle  plays,  this  has  the  solid 
meri(  a  of  boldness  and  rapidity,  even  when  it  lacks  grace. 

It  is  not  a  very  accurate  translation  of  the  apocryphal 


226  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

gospel,  but  it  narrates  the  events  of  the  story  in  a  manner 
well  calculated  to  impress  them  upon  the  mind  of  a  popu- 
lar audience. 

The  Childhood  of  Jesus  is  in  some  ways  a  less  preten- 
tious work  than  the  poetical  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  but  in 
its  own  fashion  it  is  quite  as  successful.  The  three  manu- 
scripts from  which  we  know  it  differ  from  one  another  in 
content,  and  two  of  them  were  written  by  scribes  in  the 
Midlands,  with  consequent  changes  in  dialect.  Never- 
theless, the  three  are  merely  redactions  of  the  same  poem, 
which  in  its  longest  form  extends  to  nine  hundred  and 
twenty-five  lines.  In  subject  matter  it  covers  almost  the 
same  ground  as  the  Childhood  from  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury; but  the  miracles  are  not  ordered  in  the  same  way, 
and  there  is  no  discernible  relationship  between  the  two 
poems.  Indeed,  no  direct  source  for  the  later  one  has 
been  discovered.  It  is  written  in  twelve-line  stanzas,  of 
which  the  first  eight  of  the  four-stressed  lines  are  rhymed 
alternately  on  two  rhymes,  while  the  final  quatrain  intro- 
duces two  new  sounds.  Perhaps  the  peculiar  fluency  of 
the  narrative  is  in  some  degree  the  result  of  this  metrical 
scheme.  In  any  case,  the  effect  gained  is  rapid  and 
smooth:  the  same  undecorated  and  unshadowed  flow  of 
verse  that  was  often  obtained  by  romancers  who  did  not 
try  for  the  bold  staccato  movement  ridiculed  by  Chaucer 
in  his  Sir  Thopas. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  century  there  was  also  made 
in  the  North  a  St.  Alexis  in  verse,  of  which  four  manu- 
scripts are  known.  The  same  legend  was  included  in  the 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    227 

North-English  Homily  Collection,  but  the  two  versions  are 
altogether  distinct.    The  independent  poem  was  based, 
in  my  opinion,  on  the  Latin  of  the  Alphabetum  Narra- 
tionum,  the  important  collection  of  exempla  now  ascribed 
to  Arnold  of  Liege.1    The  cult  of  St.  Alexis  was  widely 
popular  in  England,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  the 
legend  was  six  times  versified  during  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.    The  extravagant  asceticism  of   the 
story  was  perhaps  what  commended  it  to  mediaeval  taste; 
but  I  believe  that  it  owed  quite  as  much  to  the  romantic 
picturesqueness  of  the  narrative.    Alexis,  it  will  be  re- 
called, deserted  wealth  and  bride  for  beggary,  and  re- 
turned after  a  lapse  of  years  to  die  a  beggar  in  his  own 
father's  house.   The  swift  turns  of  such  a  talc  could  not 
fail  to  be  pleasing  to  an  imaginative  folk,  quite  apart 
from  its  spiritual  appeal.    The  northern  poem  that  we 
are  considering  owes  less,  indeed,  to  the  skill  of  its  maker 
than  to  the  story  with  which  he  was  dealing.   Unlike  the 
version  in  the  northern  collection  of  legends,  this  was 
obviously  written  for  oral  recitation,  and  it  has  both  the 
good  and  the  bad  qualities  of  many  such  productions. 
The  tail-rhyme  stanzas  go  swinging  onward  quickly,  with 
a    touch  of  pathos  here,   a   bit  of  swift   dialogue   there, 
but  without  much  vividness  of  scene  or  much  dignity. 
bike  a  good  deal  of  Middle  English  verse,   the  poem 
would  doubtless-  t,e  more  impressive  it'  scribes  had  not 
confused   its   language.    As  it    stands,   the  reader  can 
merely  grow  aware  that  to  its  early  auditors  it  must  have 

1  See  p.  201,  above 


228  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

seemed  a  pleasant  and  profitable  thing  to  hear  a  min- 
strel recite. 

Another  interesting  legend  of  the  first  half  of  the  cen- 
tury is  an  East  Midland  poem  entitled  Celestin.   It  is  a 
hagiographical  curiosity,  and  in  some  respects  is  peculiar 
as  a  piece  of  verse-making.  Although  the  story  purports 
to  concern  a  St.  Celestin  who  died  as  pope  in  432,  it  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  his  actual  career.   Instead, 
it  is  an  odd  mixture  of  the  themes  of  Theophilus,  Faustus, 
and  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins;  and  it  must  have  come  to  be 
attached  to  the  name  of  Celestin  in  the  same  way  that 
the  events  of  the  Gregory  legend  were  attributed  to  Greg- 
ory the  Great.    Celestin,  a  dull  boy  at  school,  makes  a 
compact  with  the  devil  to  obtain  knowledge,  and  gets 
preferment  by  the  devil's  aid  until  he  is  chosen  pope. 
When  he  is  tricked  into  celebrating  mass  "in  the  chapel 
of  Jerusalem"  at  Rome  (obviously  the  church  of  Santa 
Croce  in   Gerusalemme,  and  a  curious  anticipation  of 
Henry  IV's  Jerusalem  chamber),  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins 
in  the  form  of  devils  appear,  to  carry  him  off.   After  a 
debate  with  them,  he  is  saved  by  the  Virgin  and  com- 
mands his  own  execution.   I  have  been  unable  to  find  any 
trace  of  this  legend  elsewhere,  though  one  cannot  sup- 
pose that  the  English  author  originated  it.    The  poem, 
which  is  found  in  only  a  single  manuscript,  has  consider- 
able vigor  of  descriptive  phrase  and  is  also  interesting 
because  of  its  semi-dramatic  form.   It  is,  indeed,  almost 
as  dramatic  in  its  narrative  method  as  the  thirteenth 
century  Harrowing  of  Hell,  and  quite  as  much  so  in  effect. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    2*9 

In  connection  with  the  beginnings  of  the  drama,  with  the 
story  themes  that  it  combines,  and  with  its  curious  stan- 
zaic  form  (a  tail-rhyme  stanza  of  six  lines,  with  the  fifth 
line  unrhymed)  it  deserves  closer  study  than  it  has  ever 
received. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century  legend- writing  began 
to  be  practised  again  in  the  south  of  England.  At  this 
period,  it  will  be  remembered,  a  partial  translation  in 
verse  of  the  Legenda  Aurea  was  made  in  that  region.  We 
have,  besides,  at  least  two  separate  legends  that  show  a 
reviving  interest  in  the  genre:  Barlaam  and  Josaphat  and 
Eupkrosyne.  Neither  one  of  them,  however,  has  much 
importance,  for  they  are  merely  awkward  translations  in 
four-stressed  rhyming  couplets  and  have  no  pretensions 
to  literary  grace.  Because  they  are  found  side  by  side  in 
a  single  manuscript  and  because  they  seem  clearly  to  be 
translations  from  Old  French,  it  is  quite  possible  that  the 
same  clumsy  versifier  was  responsible  for  both  legends. 
I  cannot  believe  that  the  texts  on  which  they  were  based, 
whatever  they  may  have  been,  had  any  value  except  to 
spread  the  knowledge  of  two  famous  legends  among  the 
unlearned;  and  certainly  the  English  version  served  no 
other  purpose. 

To  the  mid-century  may  also  be  assigned  a  Vision  of 
St.  Paul,  two  other  versions  of  which  have  been  men- 
tioned above.    This  new  rendering  was  made  on  the  basis 

of  the  same  Latin  text  paraphrased  by  the  writer  of  the 
poem  in  the  Laud  MS.,  but  it  follows  the  Latin  much 
more  closely,  [ndeed,  it  is  a  sufficiently  faithful  rendering, 


230  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

though  not  a  brilliant  one,  of  a  very  well-known  version 
of  the  story.  It  is  in  the  familiar  four-beat  couplets. 
Where  it  was  made  cannot  be  determined,  for  the  dialect 
in  which  it  is  preserved  shows  a  mixture  of  Midland  and 
Southern  forms.  Even  more  difficult  to  place  geographi- 
cally is  The  Trental  of  St.  Gregory,  a  somewhat  unedifying 
story  that  was  versified  at  about  this  time.  The  work 
obtained  a  considerable  popularity,  though  its  rhymed 
couplets  jog  through  the  narrative  rather  lamely.  The 
mixture  of  dialects  gives  no  clue  to  the  district  where  it 
was  first  written.  Its  source  is  likewise  unknown,  for  that 
it  was  based  on  an  Old  French  exemplum,  as  suggested  by 
Professor  Varnhagen,  is  extremely  unlikely.  It  is  perhaps 
not  quite  a  safe  index  of  the  vogue  enjoyed  by  the  legend 
that  it  was  twice  copied  out  in  the  famous  Vernon  MS., 
yet  that  curious  fact  helps  to  confirm  the  impression  of 
popularity  otherwise  obtained.  The  tale,  of  course,  has 
no  more  connection  with  any  real  Pope  Gregory  than  had 
the  legendary  life  of  Gregory  versified  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  Trental  tells  how  his  mother's  ghost  ap- 
peared to  Gregory  after  he  became  pope,  confessed  a 
hidden  fault  of  her  youth,  and  begged  him  to  say  masses 
for  her  throughout  a  year.  By  so  doing,  he  saved  her 
soul.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  story  belongs  to  the  lowest 
level  of  hagiographical  lore.  Undoubtedly  it  was  sug- 
gested by  the  incident  in  the  life  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
as  narrated  in  the  first  instance  in  the  early  Vita  by  a 
monk  of  Whitby :  how  he  was  moved  by  pity  to  pray  for 
the  soul  of  the  Emperor  Trajan.    But  in  this  case  imagi- 


THE   CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    231 

native  tradition  played  with  a  beautiful  incident  unfor- 
tunately and  sadly  distorted  it. 

Somewhat  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  a  new  ver- 
sion of  the  life  of  St.  Margaret  was  written  in  the  North. 
This  Margaret  must  have  been  based  on  the  same  original 
as  the  remarkable  thirteenth  century  version  that  we 
have  already  noticed.  From  the  same  materials,  however, 
a  work  of  very  much  less  intrinsic  worth  was  made.    The 
short  rhymed  couplets  of  this  new  rendering  are  artlessly 
strung  together:  they  convey  the  outlines  and  even  the 
details  of  the  story,  but  they  give  no  sense  of  its  spiritual 
value  or  of  its  worth  as  narrative.  The  chief  claim  that  the 
unambitious  effort  has  to  recollection  lies  in  its  obvious 
effect  upon  a  considerable  circle  of  readers.  We  find  part 
of  it  copied  out  in  a  fifteenth  century  common-place  book 
at  an  old  country-house  in  Suffolk;  we  find  it  selected  as 
the  text  of  an  old  print,  of  which  the  unique  copy  is  in  the 
Chetham  Library  at  Manchester. 

More  interesting,  however,  is  a  new  rendering  of  St. 
Patrick's  Purgatory,  which  is  likewise  to  be  dated  between 
1350  and  1400.  This  version  is  entitled  Owaync  Myles, 
from  the  hero  of  the  adventure,  and  is  in  the  short  rhym- 
ing couplets  of  so  much  popular  verse.  It  tells  the  story 
of  Sir  Owain'a  visit  to  the  purgatory  in  a  fashion  quite 
unpretentious  but  not  unpleasing.  Although  its  maker, 
who  seems  to  have  lived  in  the  Easl  Midland  district, 
ha.l   no  such   gift  as  distinguished  the  anonymous  poet 

from  tin-  same  region  who  had  earlier  treated  tin-  same 
theme,  Ik- avoided  clumsiness  of  diction,  for  the  most  part, 


232  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

and  let  his  verse  move  rapidly.   The  smooth  flow  of  the 
narrative  is,  indeed,  the  chief  merit  of  the  version. 

With  a  new  form  of  the  Catharine  legend,  which  was 
made  about  the  same  time,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  South 
again.  This  version  has  been  preserved  in  a  very  imper- 
fect fashion,  its  form  having  been  changed  by  a  clumsy 
scribe,  it  would  appear,  from  six-line  stanzas  to  rhymed 
couplets.  Any  just  estimate  of  the  poem  in  its  original 
state  is  thus  impossible,  though  one  cannot  suppose  that 
it  had  great  merit.  As  it  now  stands,  certainly,  it  lacks 
any  beauty  or  special  interest.  It  is  merely  a  rather  clumsy 
piece  of  versification  that  attests  the  continued  popularity 
of  the  saint. 

Of  two  new  poems  on  St.  Alexis,  one  of  them  vaguely 
ascribed  to  the  second  half  of  the  century  and  the  other 
to  the  last  quarter,  little  need  be  added  to  what  was  said 
above  concerning  the  northern  Alexis.  The  one  was  writ- 
ten in  the  South;  the  other  is  preserved  in  so  mixed  a 
dialect  that  its  provenience  is  difficult  to  make  out.  The 
two  were  obviously  independent  of  one  another,  yet  were 
based  on  very  similar  sources.  The  second  (found  only 
in  MS.  Laud  622)  seems  to  be  a  translation  from  Old 
French,  though  not  of  any  text  now  known.  Both  are 
undistinguished  pieces  of  verse  in  the  popular  tail-rhyme 
stanza.  Since  the  legend  was  included  in  the  Scottish 
Legend  Collection  at  the  end  of  the  century,  as  it  had 
earlier  been  in  the  North-English  Homily  Collection,  it 
was  thus  versified  five  times  between  1300  and  1400.  As 
I  have  already  said,  one  can  understand  the  reason  for 


THE   CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    233 

this  general  interest.  One  must,  however,  regret  that  the 
interest  was  not  satisfied  by  some  more  adequate  render- 
ing. 

From  these  legends  of  the  mid-century  and  somewhat 
later,  undistinguished  as  they  were  —  mere  populariza- 
tions of  stories  already  popular  —  there  is  great  relief  in 
turning  to  the  product  of  the  years  1375-1400.  With 
those  lustra  began  what  was  to  be  the  most  brilliant  per- 
iod in  English  hagiography,  as  far  as  literary  merit  is  con- 
cerned, since  the  time  of  Cynewulf  and  his  school.  Inter- 
esting though  many  of  the  earlier  Middle  English  lives  of 
saints  in  verse  had  been,  and  admirable  though  some  of 
them  had  been  in  style  and  treatment,  there  had  been  no 
uniformity  of  excellence  among  them.  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  in  view  of  this,  that  every  legend  which  can  be  satis- 
factorily dated  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury has,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  undeniable  worth 
and  special  interest;  while  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  along  with  a  few  mediocre  lives,  produced  a 
very  considerable  body  of  legends  that  deserve  serious 
consideration  and  praise.  This  was  Chaucer's  working- 
time;  but  not  so  much  to  his  influence  can  be  ascribed 
the  new  standard  of  craftsmanship  as  to  the  forces  that 
gave  <  lhaucer  and  his  contemporaries  the  opportunity  of 
poetical  achievement.  About  the  operation  of  such  forces 
in  any  age  we  know  little;  and  cannot  in  our  explanat  iona 
do  mucfa  more  than  express  our  ignorance.    Chancer  and 

his  fellows  appeared,  bul  jus!  why  we  cannot  adequately 

expound.    English  had  ceased  to  be  a  secondary  language 


234  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

in  England,  to  be  sure;  the  national  consciousness  was 
awake.  But  the  country  was  badly  ruled,  there  was  much 
corruption,  while  war  and  pestilence  had  taken  from  the 
land  an  almost  unexampled  toll  of  death.  Conditions 
were  not  the  best  for  literary  production,  one  would  say. 
Yet  the  time  was  ripe  —  the  writers  found  both  impulse 
and  skill.  Saints'  legends  flourished  by  benefit  of  the 
same  forces  that  affected  other  genres. 

It  is  an  indication,  no  doubt,  of  the  heightened  con- 
sciousness of  English  literature  as  an  art  that  at  this 
period  we  begin  to  find  recorded  more  names  of  legend- 
•writers.  Not  only  did  men  who  were  at  least  semi-profes- 
sional authors  take  to  the  composition  of  saints'  lives,  but 
casual  versifiers  began  to  record  their  names.  The  ano- 
nymity of  the  Middle  Ages  has,  I  think,  been  over-stressed 
by  students  of  the  vernacular  literatures :  the  point  is  that 
writers  acquired  the  habit  of  signing  their  works  only 
when  they  came  to  feel  that  they  were  penning  something 
not  wholly  fugitive  and  temporary.  Names  multiply  in 
English  literary  history,  before  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  not  only  because  there  was  a  stronger  impulse 
to  write  the  native  tongue  but  also  because  the  native 
writers  felt  the  increasing  dignity  of  the  vernacular. 

From  the  last  quarter  of  the  century  come  five  anony- 
mous verse  legends,  all  of  them,  as  I  have  said,  of  marked 
value.  In  1375,  as  we  know  from  his  own  statement  in 
an  epilogue,  an  East  Midland  poet  gave  the  story  of 
Adam  and  Eve  a  new  form.  The  version  in  rhymed  coup- 
lets, made  about  a  century  earlier,  was  a  simple  and  net 


THE    CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    235 

wholly  unsuccessful  narrative,  but  this  new  translation  is 
greatly  superior  to  it  both  in  management  of  events  and 
of  verse.  Through  two  hundred  tail-rhyme  stanzas  the 
poet  so  frames  events,  so  phrases  both  dialogue  and  de- 
scription, that  the  reader  is  held  unwearied.  Thisstrophic 
Canticum  de  Creaiione,  as  it  is  called  in  the  unique  manu- 
script, was  based  for  the  most  part  on  the  same  materials 
;is  the  earlier  Adam  and  Eve,  but  includes  also  a  brief 
outline  of  the  history  of  the  cross-wood.  It  is,  of  course, 
an  entirely  independent  rendering  of  the  Latin  sources. 
Even  more  interesting  are  two  legends  in  the  well- 
known  Thornton  MS.,  a  miscellany  collected  and  trans- 
scribed  by  Robert  Thornton,  a  Yorkshireman,  who  be- 
came archdeacon  of  Bedford  and  who  died  in  1450.  The 
saints'  lives  that  he  found  worthy  of  inclusion  in  his  vol- 
ume were  both  written  in  the  North:  a  Christopher  and  a 
John  the  Evangelist.  The  former,  of  which  an  extensive 
section  has  been  lost  with  certain  leaves  of  the  manu- 
script, must  once  have  been  a  poem  of  very  considerable 
length.  In  its  mutilated  state,  indeed,  it  runs  to  more 
t  ban  a  thousand  lines.  It  is  on  the  scale  of  the  romances, 
which  it  resembles  in  many  ways.  The  metre  is  the  fa- 
miliar rhymed  couplet,  but  of  a  particularly  easy  and 

fluent  execution.  For  the  treatmenl  of  the  legend  thai 
the  poet  gives,  the  verse  was  singularly  well  adapted. 

lie  had,  moreover,  the  power  of  visualizing  the  important 
BCeneS  of  t  he  story  and  of  making  the  reader  feel,  accord- 
ingly, the  dignity  and  pathos  of  the  giant  Christopher's 
Bearch   for   the    Lord   of   the   World   and  of  his   humble 


236  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

service  to  Christ.  It  is  the  later  legend  of  the  saint,  of 
course,  that  is  recounted:  concerning  the  paynim  Chris- 
topher, who  would  have  as  master  only  the  mightiest, 
and  who  was  rewarded,  before  he  met  martyrdom,  by  the 
privilege  of  carrying  his  Lord  across  the  turbulent  estu- 
ary. Our  northern  poet  rose  to  the  height  of  the  occasion 
in  describing  that  scene,  but  elsewhere  also  he  gave  the 
beautiful  legend  a  worthy  dress.  He  was  not  a  maker  of 
phrases;  he  plunged  straight  on  with  his  narrative;  he 
had,  in  short,  the  manner  of  the  ablest  romancers  who 
wrote  for  a  popular  hearing.  Yet  the  tone  was  a  proper 
one  for  legend-writing,  and  the  superscription  of  the 
manuscript  is  just:  "to  the  heryng  or  the  redyng  of  the 
whilke  storye  langes  grete  mede,  and  it  be  done  with 
devocione." 

The  John  the  Evangelist  is  a  poem  more  ambitious  than 
the  Christopher  in  form,  but  quite  as  successful.  It  is 
written  in  a  curious  metre  that  combines  alliterative  lines 
into  elaborate  stanzas  by  means  of  rhyme:  a  difficult 
device  much  used,  and  rather  delightfully  at  times,  by 
northern  poets.  In  John  the  Evangelist,  certainly,  the 
complication  of  the  stanzas  does  not  hamper  expression 
or  lead  to  mere  ingenuity  of  handling.  The  poem  is  a 
series  of  invocations  to  St.  John,  and  to  that  extent  lyri- 
cal; but  it  rehearses  the  chief  events  of  his  life  as  given 
in  the  New  Testament  and  in  apocryphal  writings.  There 
is  great  tenderness  of  feeling  in  the  delineation  of  the 
saint's  care  for  Christ's  Mother,  an .  exquisiteness  that 
stamps  the  work  as  the  production  of  a  poet  who  was 


THE  CONQUEST   TO  THE  REFORMATION    237 

capable  of  the  finer  shades  of  human  emotion.  Withal, 
the  love  of  color  and  the  richness  of  Vocabulary,  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  school  by  which  alliterative  verse  was 
revived  in  the  fourteenth  century,  give  the  poem  imagi- 
native appeal.  It  is  a  misfortune  that  we  do  not  know 
the  poet's  name,  for  he  was  akin  to  the  equally  unknown 
author  of  the  Pearl,  though  inferior  to  that  great  artist 
in  his  gifts. 

Another  anonymous  legend  of  the  period,  however,  has 
sometimes  been  ascribed  to  the  Pearl  poet,  and  is  quite 
worthy  of  him.  Unfortunately,  we  have  no  evidence  save 
similarity  of  language  by  which  to  connect  Erkenwald 
with  either  the  Pearl  or  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Green 
Kniyht.  That  it  was  a  production  of  the  same  school, 
however,  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt:  it  was  written  in 
the  Northwestern  Midlands  and  in  a  style  that  reminds 
one  at  every  turn  of  the  allegorical  elegy  and  the  romance. 
The  treatment  of  the  subject,  withal,  shows  the  same 
imaginative  daring,  the  same  boldness  of  conception. 
Erkenwald  is  not  a  life  of  the  saint,  who  died  as  Bishop 
of  London  in  692-94,  but  the  story  of  an  incident  during 
his  bishopric.  While  St.  Paul's  was  rebuilding,  it  runs, 
there  was  found  a  rich  tomb  containing  the  body  of  a 
man  clothed  in  royal  robes  and  crowned.  The  corpse  was 
undecaycd,  with  the  garments  upon  it  as  fresh  as  on  the 
day  of  burial.    When  St.   Erkenwald  was  summoned  to 

witness  tin-  miracle,  he  commanded  the  man,  in  the  name 

of  (  brist ,   to  tell    who  he  was  and   what    was  his  state. 
Then  the  body  spoke,  relating  that  he  had  been  magis- 


238  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

trate  in  "the  new  Troy"  more  than  a  thousand  years 
"  before  Christ,  during  the  reign  of  Sir  Belyne;  that  he  had 
lived  righteously;  but  that  Christ's  mercy  had  not  been 
extended  to  him  when  He  harrowed  Hell.  So  moved  was 
Erkenwald  by  this  recital  that  tears  dropped  from  his 
eyes ;  and,  while  he  spoke  the  words  of  baptism,  one  tear 
fell  upon  the  face  of  the  corpse.  Whereupon,  the  man 
gave  thanks  that  his  time  of  waiting  was  at  an  end,  "for 
the  words  thou  speakest  and  thy  tears,  the  bright  stream 
from  thy  eyes,  have  become  my  baptism."  And  the 
corpse  with  its  gorgeous  vestments  fell  into  sudden  decay. 
This  miracle  is  found,  as  far  as  I  can  discover,  in  none  of 
the  accounts  of  the  saint,  though  many  wonders  are  at- 
tributed to  him.  Possibly  our  poet  may  have  found  the 
story  in  the  "crafty  cronecles"  of  which  he  speaks,  or  he 
may  have  taken  his  materials  from  a  tradition  of  the 
Welsh  marches.  At  all  events,  his  three  hundred  and 
fifty-two  unrhymed  alliterative  lines  owed  much  to  his 
own  imagination.  They  have  the  charm  of  color  and 
sound  and  movement  that  goes  with  romantic  poetry, 
and  a  restraint  of  mood  by  which  the  sensuous  appeal  is 
moulded  into  beauty.  It  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a  saintly 
miracle  so  sweetly  and  yet  so  powerfully  told.  Despite 
the  difficulties  presented  by  its  unfamiliar  speech,  the 
poem  should  not  lie  perdu,  as  it  has  done,  to  lovers  of 
English  poetry  and  of  ecclesiastical  lore. 

A  legend  that  scarcely  falls  within  the  limits  of  the 
type,  yet  must  still  be  there  classed,  is  the  poem  diversely 
known  as  Susanna  and  The  Pistel  of  Swete  Susan.    In 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     239 

content  it  is  simply  the  story  of  the  adventure  of  Susanna 
with  the  elders;  but  so  bedecked  with  poetie  description, 
after  the  manner  of  the  school  of  writers  who  used  the 
revived  alliterative  verse,  as  to  be  almost  wholly  a  work 
of  the  author's  imagination.  Concerning  its  authorship 
and  provenience  Middle  English  scholars  have  at  times 
been  greatly  agitated,  and  with  good  reason.  Because 
of  a  reference  in  Wyntoun's  Chronicle  of  Scotland  it  has 
been  ascribed  to  a  poet  named  Iluchown,  who  has  further 
been  identified  with  Sir  Hugh  of  Eglinton.  The  dialect 
of  the  manuscript  is  scarcely  that  of  fourteenth  century 
Scotland,  which  makes  the  second  conjecture  most  haz- 
ardous and  raises  doubts  about  the  first.  A  discussion  of 
tin-  question  would  here  be  out  of  place.  It  is  enough  to 
record  that  not  long  before  the  last  quarter  of  the  century 
began,  or  perhaps  somewhat  later,  a  northern  poet  of 
considerable  gifts  related  the  popular  story  of  Susanna 
with  an  elaboration  of  stanzaic  form  that  rivalled  the 
elaboration  of  setting. 

Chaucer  himself  made  but  a  single  excursion  in  legend- 
writ  iiu.  although  the  Monk  of  The  Canterbury  Tales  is 
represented  as  prepared  to  "seyn  the  lyf  of  seint  Ed- 
ward," and  the  Man  of  Law  refers  to  The  Legend  of  Good 
Women  as  I  In-  "  Seintes  Legende  of  ( Jupide."  The  Man  of 
Law's  Tale  in  one  way,  indeed,  and  the  Prioress's  Tale  in 
another,  approximate  the  type;  bul  the  story  of  Constance 
i-.  after  all,  a  romance,  and  the  tale  of  the  " lite]  cler- 
i  in"  an  exemplum.  What  is  of  importance  to  us  with 
reference  to  these  two  stories  is  thai  they  Bhow  Chaucer 


240  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

capable  of  understanding  the  spirit  in  which  legends 
ought  to  be  written.  This  he  showed  again,  and  more 
fully,  in  the  life  of  St.  Cecilia,  which  he  ascribed  to  the 
Second  Nun. 

The  date  of  St.  Cecilia,  like  many  another  vexing  ques- 
tion of  Chaucerian  chronology,  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  inquiry  of  late  years.  That  the  tale  was  not,  in 
the  first  instance,  written  for  the  Second  Nun  is  proved 
by  a  reference  in  the  prologue  to  the  narrator  as  an  "  un- 
worthy sone  of  Eve,"  and  by  the  appeal  at  the  end  to 
"yow  that  reden  that  I  wryte."  That  it  was  written 
before  The  Legend  of  Good  Women,  which  is  ascribed  to 
1385  or  1386,  we  know  also,  for  it  is  mentioned  in  the 
prologue  of  that  work.  The  date  that  has  been  custom- 
arily assigned  to  the  poem,  however,  is  1373-4,  though 
Professor  Kittredge  has  recently  remarked  that  this 
"  seems  on  the  whole  a  little  too  early."  The  tendency  has 
been  to  place  it  as  soon  as  possible  after  Chaucer's  return 
from  his  first  Italian  mission  in  1373.  Quite  lately  Pro- 
fessor Carleton  Brown  has  advanced  the  ingenious  argu- 
ment that  the  stanzas  of  the  prologue  which  Chaucer 
imitated  from  Dante's  Paradiso,  eking  out  lines  with 
recollected  phrases  from  hymns,  were  inserted  after  the 
prologue  was  first  written.  Unfortunately,  though  Pro- 
fessor Brown  shows  that  the  stanzas  in  question  —  an 
invocation  to  the  Virgin  —  are  an  elaborate  mosaic  of 
phrases  that  had  stuck  in  the  poet's  memory,  he  presents 
no  evidence  that  the  passage  is  an  insertion  at  all,  which 
is  the  crucial  point.  That  it  may  have  been  is  wholly  an 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     241 

assumption,  based  on  the  fact  that  the  prologue  runs 
smoothly  enough  if  the  stanzas  be  left  out,  and  on  the 
feeling  that  they  are  better  poetry  than  the  rest  —  that 
they  are  an  anachronism  as  they  are  now  placed.  Such 
contentions  repose  so  much  on  personal  taste,  it  need 
scarcely  be  said,  that  they  have  no  validity  in  settling  a 
prosaic  question  of  date.  In  point  of  fact,  the  early  date 
assigned  the  St.  Cecilia  as  a  whole  rests  entirely  on  im- 
pressionistic criticism:  on  the  assumption  that  Chaucer 
would  not  have  written  it  after  he  reached  full  maturity. 
Into  this  matter  we  must,  after  a  moment,  inquire;  but 
we  may  safely  assert  that  such  arguments  do  not  prove 
when  the  poem  was  written.  That  Chaucer  made  it  be- 
fore The  Legend  of  Good  Women  we  know;  that  it  may  be 
dated  after  1.373  we  surmise;  beyond  that  we  have  to 
confess  our  ignorance. 

Upon  what  version  of  the  Aefa  S.  Cceciliw  the  poet 
based  his  story  we  are  equally  in  doubt.  The  studies 
of  Kolbing  and  Professor  Holthausen,  however,  have 
made  clear  at  least  three  points.  Chaucer  did  not  use 
Jean  de  Vignay's  translation  of  the  Legenda  J  urea,  as 
was  formerly  said;  he  must  have  had  before  him  a  Latin 
text  greatly  resembling  that  translated  into  Greek  by 
Simeon  MetapTirastes;  and  he  must  have  rendered  his 
original  into  English  with  remarkable  fidelity.  It  is  quite 
possible  ili.it  a  properly  directed  study  of  the  bat  in  ver- 
sions may  yet  reveal  the  form  that  Chaucer  knew. 

Th<-  faithfulness  of  his  translation  is  a  matter  of  con- 
siderable importance.  Scholars  wiser  in  Chaucerian  than 


242  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

in  saintly  lore  —  wiser,  too,  I  fear,  in  textual  criticism 
than  in  humanity  —  have  not  scrupled  to  rate  the  poet 
soundly  for  showing  so  little  originality  in  his  Cecilia. 
"Skill  in  combining  materials,"  says  one  who  excepts 
the  beautiful  invocation,  "is  just  what  is  conspicuously 
absent."  Yes:  he  did  not  combine;  he  changed  the  legend 
as  slightly  as  possible,  as  far  as  one  can  see;  he  was  true 
to  his  statements  at  the  opening  of  the  poem. 

I  have  heer  doon  my  feithful  bisinesse, 
After  the  legende,  in  translacioun, 

and  again :  — 

For  both  have  I  the  wordes  and  sentence 
Of  him  that  at  the  seintes  reverence 
The  storie  wroot,  and  folwe  hir  legende, 
And  prey  yow,  that  ye  wol  my  werk  amende. 

To  the  penetrating  criticism  of  Professor  Root  that 
Chaucer's  "deliberate  choice  of  theme,  not  in  the  first 
place  for  the  Second  Nun,  but  for  himself,  is  a  valuable 
piece  of  testimony  as  to  his  deeper  and  more  serious  life," 
it  might  be  added  that  his  treatment  of  the  theme  "at 
the  seintes  reverence"  is  equally  a  revelation  of  the  great 
poet's  inner  self.  The  religious  tone  of  his  legend  is  as 
admirable  as  is  its  technical  execution. 

Chaucer's  achievement  in  writing  the  Cecilia  is  the 
greater,  to  my  mind,  that  he  was  not  forced  to  falsify  his 
original  in  order  to  get  the  poetical  effects  he  attained. 
He  seems,  from  motives  that  do  him  great  credit,  to  have 
been  more  chary  about  letting  his  imagination  play  with 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION  U3 

the  story  than  were  most  mediaeval  legend-writers;  and 

yet  he  succeeded  in  giving  to  it  a  form  as  remarkable  for 
its  beauty  as  for  its  human  appeal.  Keeping  "wordes 
and  sentence,"  he  nevertheless  made  the  figure  of  the 
saint  as  vivid  against  the  background  of  miracle  as  are 
all  the  personalities  in  his  maturcr  work.  The  virgin's 
holiness  shines  through  the  limpid  flow  of  the  poet's  fav- 
orite stanzas  -—  he  wrote  in  the  rhyme  royal;  yet  her 
humanity  is  not  obscured.  Nothing  but  the  most  rigorous 
sobriety  and  simplicity  of  execution  could  have  given 
this  quality  to  the  work.  Not  only  Cecilia  but  her  hus- 
band Valerian  and  his  brother  Tiburce,  who  precede  her 
to  martyrdom,  are  pictured  with  a  solid  mastery  that  is 
unusual  in  legend-writing. 

It  is  aptness  of  phrase,  perhaps,  careful  adapting  of 
metrical  expression  to  the  required  mood,  that  achieves 
this  result;  but  these  things  are  the  basis  of  great  poetry. 
Unless  Chaucer  had  before  him  a  Latin  text  much  more 
felicitous  than  any  I  have  seen,  the  charm  of  his  legend 
h  due  in  very  large  measure  to  his  own  genius.  This  he 
accomplished,  moreover,  be  it  remembered,  without  un- 
faithfulness of  rendering.  The  only  liberty  that  he  seems 
to  have  permitted  himself  was  to  hurry  on  from  the  con- 
version of  the  two  brothers  to  their  martyrdom.  The  in- 
stinct of  the  born  story-teller  would  have  urged  him  to 
this  course,  which  in  do  way  changed  the  legend  though 
it  brought  the  leading  characters  into  sharper  relief .  The 
difference  between  his  treatmenl  and  other  forms  of  the 
life  is  the  difference  be!  ween  portraits  of  the  same  person 


244  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

by  a  great  painter  and  by  his  less  richly  gifted  contem- 
poraries. While  writing  his  prologue,  where  he  could  ex- 
press freely  his  own  meditat"  ns,  Chaucer's  mind  must 
have  been  swept  by  a  flood  ci  recollected  phrases  and 
images,  out  of  which  he  made  the  beautiful  mosaic  that 
fittingly  introduces  the  legend.  If  the  sober  reverence  of 
treatment  throughout  the  poem  be  remembered,  it  is 
small  wonder  that  he  fitted  an  invocation  to  the  Virgin 
into  the  prologue;  small  wonder,  too,  that  the  poetic 
level  of  his  verse  rose  to  the  height  of  the  religious  emo- 
tion he  was  expressing.  What  he  made  was  not  a  patch- 
work of  phrases  from  Dante  arid  the  hymn-writers,  nor  is 
the  credit  for  its  loveliness  due  to  them.  It  is  Chaucer's 
prayer,  forged  by  his  brain  from  some  of  the  loftiest  ut- 
terances of  Christian  faith;  Chaucer's  prayer  as  certainly 
as  if  he  had  newly  minted  each  phrase  and  word  that  it 
contains. 

A  saint's  life  from  the  very  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury aptly  illustrates  the  changed  conditions  of  legend- 
writing  that  came  about  with  the  final  adoption  of  Eng- 
lish as  the  natural  medium  of  expression  both  for  the 
high-born  and  for  men  of  low  estate.  It  was  written 
by  a  squire  of  a  great  lord,  who  thus  whiled  away  the 
tedium  of  an  imprisonment  into  which  he  had  voluntarily 
followed  his  master.  By  a  fortunate  chance,  the  author 
gave  his  name  and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  made  his 
legend.  He  was  called  William  Paris,  and  he  was  the  sole 
attendant  remaining  to  Thomas  de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  exiled  to  the  Isle  of  Man  in  1397  by  Richard  II. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION     245 

Very  seldom  in  the  history  of  mediaeval  literature  is  such 
accuracy  of  statement  possible. 

The  saint  whose  life  t;*e  faithful  squire  chose  as  the 
solace  of  his  hours  of  idleness  was  Christina.  The  legend 
of  Christina  had  already  been  included  in  one  of  the  ex- 
panded versions  of  the  North-English  Homily  Collection  ; 
it  was  selected  for  translation  by  the  author  of  the  Scottish 
Legend  Collection  at  about  William  Paris's  time;  and  it 
was  to  be  the  subject  of  a  poem  by  Osbern  Bokenam 
towards  the  middle  of  the  next  century.  These  four 
translations,  however,  were  entirely  independent  of  one 
another,  and  based,  I  think,  on  different  Latin  texts. 
Although  it  is  possible  that  the  passio  used  by  William 
Paris  perished  on  the  Isle  of  Man,  it  seems  likely  that 
a  form  very  similar  to  it  may  still  be  in  existence.  There 
is  something  more  than  a  possibility,  indeed,  that  a  still 
inedited  manuscript  of  the  Vatican  Library  (B.H.L.  no. 
1748a)  may  enable  us  to  discover  with  how  much  ac- 
curacy Warwick's  attendant  followed  his  source.  Even 
without  clearer  knowledge  of  his  original,  however,  we 
can  see  that  the  achievement  of  William  Paris  was  in 
some  ways  remarkable.  He  was  not  a  great  poet,  to  be 
sure;  as  far  as  we  know,  this  may  have  been  his  only 
essay  in  verse,  and  it  showed  no  extraordinary  gifts. 
Ye!  it  is  in  every  respect  a  more  accomplished  and 
pleasing  translation  of  the  legend  than  the  other  three 
that  I  have  mentioned.  More  than  that,  it  has  a  charm 
of  movement  and  phrase  distinctly  reminiscent  of 
Chaucer's  Cecilia.    There  is  no  way  of  proving,  of  course, 


246  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

that  William  Paris  knew  Chaucer's  legend  and  used  it 
as  a  model,  but  there  is  every  probability  that  a  book- 
ish young  man  at  the  court  of  Richard  II  would  have 
read  the  Second  Nun's  Tale  and  would  have  remem- 
bered it  when  he  sat  down  to  write.  Except  on  the  sup- 
position that  such  was  the  case,  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  the  Christina  happens  to  show  the  qualities 
that  give  it  distinction.  William  Paris  did  not  ape* 
Chaucer's  phrases  or  refashion  his  story  on  the  basis  of 
Chaucer's  narrative  art;  but  the  treatment  of  his  eight- 
line  stanza  and  the  quality  of  his  diction  recall  at  every 
turn  the  master's  handling.  It  was  his  misfortune  that 
he  chose  a  saint's  life  less  capable  of  artistic  treatment 
than  St.  Cecilia's,  yet  it  must  be  said  that  he  made  of 
the  rather  stereotyped  martyrdom  a  poem  of  unexpected 
interest.  Since  William  Paris  and  his  legend  are  almost 
unknown,  I  quote  two  stanzas  by  way  of  illustration. 
The  first  is  self-explanatory,  while  the  second  concerns 
the  misfortunes  of  Thomas  de  Beauchamp. 

Thus  some  have  grace  or  thei  borne  be, 
As  had  the  Baptiste,  goode  Seint  Johne, 
And  somme  in  tendre  age,  parde, 
As  Cristyne  had,  that  faire  wo  mane; 
And  some  in  elde  when  youghte  is  gone, 
As  in  Poules  lyfe  we  may  see; 
And  some  whene  thei  shall  die  anone, 
As  Barabas  thefe,  that  honge  so  hye. 


Where  are  his  knyghtis  that  with  hyme  yede 
Whane  he  was  in  prosperite? 
Where  are  the  squiers  now  at  nede 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     247 

That  suraetyme  thoughte  thei  wold  not  flee? 

Of  yomene  hade  he  ^rete  plente 

Thate  he  was  wonte  to  cloth  and  fcede: 

No  we  is  ther  none  of  the  mene 

Thate  ons  dare  se  ther  lorde  fore  drede. 


At  about  the  time  when  William  Paris  was  writing  his 
poem,  the  anonymous  author  of  the  Scottish  Legend  Col- 
lection was  translating  his  series  of  saints'  lives  beyond 
the  border;  and  only  a  little  later  in  Shropshire,  John 
Mirk  compiled  his  Festial  for  the  use  of  parish  priests. 
The  significance  of  the  latter  work,  which  was  discussed 
in  the  chapter  preceding  this,  can  in  some  respects  be 
better  appreciated  after  our  review  of  the  course  that  leg- 
ends ran  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries. 
It  was  in  prose;  and  the  reader  will  note  that  from  the 
closing  years  of  the  twelfth  century  until  the  very  end 
of  Chaucer's  life  no  prose  legend  is  of  record.  With  the 
turn  of  the  fifteenth  century,  however,  the  practice  of 
making  translations  in  English  prose  revived,  which  can 
mean  nothing  else  than  that  the  circle  of  persons  who 
wished  to  read,  as  well  as  to  hear  read,  the  lives  of  saints 
had  been  greatly  widened.  During  the  fifteenth  century, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  almost  as  many  legends  were  written 
in  prose  as  in  verse.  Before  considering  them,  however, 
it  will  perhaps  be  better  first  to  follow  the  current  of  the 
poetical  lives  until,  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses  in  1  t.3."i,  the  composition  of  them  virtually  ceased. 

The  pro>e   Irjrink   spanned    the  century,   which   was  to 

witness  at  its  end  so  marked  a  change  of  conditions  in 


248  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

literary  production  that  the  debacle  of  the  Reformation 
cannot  be  said  to  have  come  without  warning. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  was  made  a  translation 
in  rhyming  couplets  of  the  Latin  prose  Visio  Tnugdali 
that  won  a  considerable  success,  although  it  was  without 
much  merit.  The  Vision  of  Tundale  was  an  imitation  of 
earlier  visions  such  as  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick  and  the 
Vision  of  Paul,  but  it  was  less  well  organized  and  more 
repetitious  even  in  its  best  versions.  As  in  the  Purgatory, 
the  scene  of  the  story  is  Ireland,  and  striking  details  like 
the  Bridge  of  Souls  are  taken  over  with  little  variation 
from  the  earlier  work.  The  chief  difference  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  hero  is  wicked  and  suffers  purgatorial  tor- 
ments as  a  warning.  Tundale  is  represented  as  an  Irish 
knight  of  the  mid-twelfth  century.  The  English  version, 
which  is  a  poem  of  more  than  two  thousand  lines,  was 
made  in  the  North  and  followed  the  Latin  original  with 
unimaginative  fidelity. 

In  the  North,  also,  and  early  in  the  century,  was  com- 
piled a  life  of  St.  Cuthbert  in  verse,  the  first,  save  the 
St.  Erkenwald,  of  a  series  of  local  legends  that  was  to  be 
a  marked  feature  of  the  new  period  of  complete  national 
consciousness.  The  St.  Cuthbert  is  an  ambitious  work  in 
four  books,  and  runs  to  nearly  eight  thousand  five  hun- 
dred lines;  but  it  has  no  interest  except  as  showing  the 
current  of  the  times.  It  is,  indeed,  a  most  tedious  ex- 
ample of  prolix  verse-making.  The  author  was  a  rude 
craftsman,  with  no  better  control  of  the  tail-rhyme  stan- 
zas by  which  he  tried  to  vary  the  monotony  of  his  poem 


TIIE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     249 

than  of  the  short  rhyming  couplets  in  which  he  wrote  the 
greater  part  of  it.  He  made  from  his  materials  neither 
picturesque  narrative,  nor  sober  history  of  the  early 
Anglian  Church,  nor  yet  sympathetic  biography.  For  the 
most  part,  he  drew  upon  well-known  Latin  works  for 
his  information,  and  otherwise  preserved  little  that  is 
valuable.  His  ponderous  work  is,  in  brief,  a  mechanical 
compilation  without  the  merits  of  popular  poetry  or  of 
consciously  artistic  narrative. 

Vastly  more  interesting  and  valuable  in  every  respect 
is  the  little  known  life  of  an  obscure  thirteenth  century 
hermit  which  was  written  in  Yorkshire  at  about  the  same 
time.  Of  St.  Robert  of  Knaresborough,  who  was  thus  cele- 
brated, almost  nothing  is  known  save  from  the  unique 
manuscript  of  the  English  poetical  life.  This  manuscript 
seems  to  have  come  from  the  house  of  the  Trinitarian  or 
Maturine  Friars  at  Knaresborough,  which  was  on  the 
foundation  of  grants  made  to  St.  Robert  during  his  life- 
time. Aside  from  the  English  legend,  it  contains  a  life  in 
Latin  verse  and  one  in  Latin  prose.  Both  of  the  latter  are 
still  inedited,  while  the  English  poem  is  accessible  only  in 
a  text  published  in  1824.  A  modern  edition  of  the  entire 
manuscript  is  much  to  be  desired,  for  the  English  portion 
of  it  has  great  interest  as  a  linguistic  document,  while 
the  hagiographical  and  antiquarian  value  of  the  whole 
can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  The  history  of  the  order 
of  the  Trinitarian  Friars,  for  one  thing,  is  singularly 
obscure,  although  an  aeeount  of  their  operations  for 
tin    redemption  of  captives  among  Jews  and   Saracens 


250  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

would  be  one  of  the  most  romantic  chapters  of  mediae- 
val history. 

The  English  Life  of  St.  Robert  seems  to  have  been 
written  by  the  head  of  the  Trinitarian  house  at  Knares- 
borough,  — 

That  I,  all  yff  I  simple  be, 

Occupy es  als  presidentt. 

i 
He  wrote,  in  such  unadorned  couplets  as  that  just  quoted, 

an  account  both  of  Robert's  life  and  of  the  foundation  of 
his  house.  Because  his  work  is  known  to  so  few  I  tran- 
scribe his  opening  lines :  — 

Then  frendes  fares  well  at  a  fest 
And  glewmen  gladdes  tham  wit  gest. 
Of  harpyng  som  has  lyst  to  here 
And  som  of  earpyng  of  tales  sere; 
Of  Arthure,  Ector,  and  Achilles, 
Princes  that  wer  proude  in  prese, 
Of  kynges  and  kempes,  of  conquerours. 
Of  lords,  of  ladies,  of  paramours, 
That  ar  bott  vaine  and  vanite. 
Of  slyke  sail  noght  my  earpyng  be, 
Bott  of  a  better,  he  me  haste, 
Fadir  and  son  and  halygaste. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  author  was  not  greatly  accom- 
plished, but  also  that  he  had  the  gift  of  fluent  verse. 
Indeed,  the  homely  simplicity  which  he  combined  with 
reverence  make  his  rapidly  moving  narrative  interesting 
of  itself,  as  it  would  be,  in  any  case,  from  the  nature  of 
his  material. 

St.  Robert's  career  was  picturesque  in  its  variety  and 
its  contrasts.    Like  Francis  of  Assisi,  who  was  almost 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     251 

exactly  his  contemporary,  he  was  of  good  birth.  After 
taking  sub-deacon's  orders,  he  left  York  with  his  page 
and  remained  for  some  months  at  Newminster  Abbey. 
He  then  returned  to  his  birthplace,  but  soon  joined  a 
hermit  (who  had  been  a  knight)  at  Knaresborough. 
Thence  he  was  driven  by  thieves,  but  after  remaining  for 
some  time  at  Spofford  and  at  Hedley  Abbey  he  returned 
to  take  up  his  residence  definitely  at  the  place  with  which 
his  name  is  associated.  Neither  the  persecutions  of  two 
lords  nor  the  entreaties  of  his  brother  —  then  mayor  of 
York  —  could  dislodge  him.  From  them,  as  well  as  from 
King  John,  who  visited  him,  he  obtained  gifts  that  estab- 
lished him  at  the  head  of  a  little  community.  So  great  was 
his  reputation  at  the  time  of  his  death  that  the  monks  of 
Fountains  Abbey  tried  to  obtain  his  body  and  were  driven 
away  by  the  men  of  Knaresborough  in  force.  Along 
with  much  interesting  detail,  this  is  the  story  of  his  life, 
which  deserves  to  be  better  known. 

Probably  in  the  North  also  was  made,  at  this  time,  a 
new  version  of  St.  Alexis  in  rhymed  couplets,  the  sixth 
and  last  of  the  Middle  English  poetical  treatments  of 
the  theme.  Like  the  two  northern  versions  of  a  century 
earlier,  it  was  written  for  the  pleasure  of  unlearned  men; 
and  its  only  virtue  is  its  appeal  by  homely  pictures  to 
their  sense  of  dramatic  contrasts.  In  his  description  of 
the  marriage-feast  the  poet  indulged  his  fancy  as  the 
makers  of  popular  romances  were  wont  to  do,  and 

Every  man  had  there  plente 

Of  claret.  u\m-  ami  |>vmi-nte. 


252  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

There  is,  moreover,  the  swift  movement  characteristic  of 
all  the  better  specimens  among  tales  designed  for  the 
common  people.  This  is  the  shortest  rendering  of  St. 
Alexis,  and  not  the  least  interesting. 

Still  another  legend  that  received  a  new  dress  in  the 
early  part  of  the  century  was  Theophilus.  It  had  already 
been  adapted  for  both  the  South-English  Legendary  and 
the  North-English  Homily  Collection  ;  but  this  later  inde- 
pendent rendering  has  points  of  interest  that  the  earlier 
ones  do  not  possess.  Like  the  thirteenth  century  Harrow- 
ing of  Hell  and  the  fourteenth  century  Celestin,  it  is  semi- 
dramatic  in  form.  Quite  clearly,  I  think,  it  must  either 
have  been  based  on  a  miracle  play  or  have  been  a  con- 
scious attempt  at  dramatic  form.  The  story  is  told  almost 
wholly  by  dialogue  and  soliloquy;  and  in  many  places  the 
connecting  tissue  of  narrative  is  entirely  omitted,  so  that 
speech  follows  speech  without  interruption.  It  is  hardly 
possible  in  the  circumstances  to  decide  why  the  dramatic 
element  should  have  been  so  emphasized:  either  of  the 
two  possibilities  mentioned  above  may  be  the  true  expla- 
nation. The  poem  cannot  be  classed  as  a  play,  I  think, 
but  it  is  an  important  witness  to  the  rising  popularity  of 
drama  at  the  time  —  the  age,  it  will  be  remembered,  when 
the  miracle  cycles  were  taking  shape.  This  Theophilus  is 
written  in  six-line  tail-rhyme  stanzas,  terse  and  bold  of 
phrasing,  though  sufficiently  crude.  The  traffic  of  the 
clerk  Theophilus  with  the  Devil  for  the  sake  of  position 
and  riches  was  a  subject  of  as  absorbing  interest  to  the 
Middle  Ages  as  was  the  evil  ambition  of  Faustus  to  the 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION     253 

Renaissance;  and  it  lent  itself  early  to  dramatic  presen- 
tation. Especially  vivid  in  the  poem  we  are  considering 
is  the  scene  where  Theophilus  reads  the  charter  by  which 
he  gives  his  soul  to  Satanas.  To  its  generation  and  to  its 
proper  audience  it  must  have  furnished  the  thrill  that 
Marlowe  so  magnificently  provided  for  a  later  day.  The 
intervention  of  the  Virgin  at  the  end  weakens  the  tragic 
significance  of  the  story,  as  always,  but  it  gives  a  melo- 
dramatic deuoumetit  less  incongruous  than  Goethe's  philo- 
sophical solution  of  the  Faust  story.  Our  fifteenth  century 
Theophilus  deserves  greater  fame  than  it  has  hitherto  en- 
joyed, not  as  a  finished  product  of  art,  but  as  one  link  in 
a  long  chain  of  legends.  Unfortunately  the  mixture  of 
dialect  in  the  unicme  manuscript  of  the  work  prevents  us 
from  knowing  in  what  part  of  England  it  was  composed. 

Also  mixed  in  dialect  is  another  poem  of  the  early 
fifteenth  century  which  must,  like  Theophilus,  be  classed 
as  a  legend  though  it  is  not  the  life  of  a  saint.  The  story 
of  Robert  of  Sicily,  the  proud  king  on  whose  throne  God 
placed  an  angel  till  he  had  learned  humility  as  a  beggar, 
is  not  unknown  to  modern  readers.  The  fifteenth  century 
version  in  rhymed  couplets,  though  unpretentious  and 
perfectly  commonplace,  seems  to  have  enjoyed  a  consid- 
erable popularity.  Probably  any  rendering  of  a  theme  so 
well  designed  to  flatter  the  imagination  of  the  populace 
would  have  found  equal  favor,  no  matter  what  its  qualities. 

Before  passing  to  a  consideration  of  more  important 
works,  I  musl  mention  the  facl  that  a  new  version  of 
The  Trenkd  of  St.  Gregory  was  made  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 


254  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

tury  —  and  probably  in  the  first  decades  of  it.  The  work 
has  no  importance,  however,  save  as  showing  that  the 
legend  persisted  in  popular  favor,  for  it  is  no  less  despi- 
cable than  the  version  from  the  previous  century  already 
described.  One  can  only  say  that  the  story  deserved  no 
better  dress  than  the  rude  couplets  in  which  it  is  clumsily 
arrayed. 

Interesting  among  the  legend-writers  of  the  time  whose 
names  we  know,  was  John  Audelay.  He  was  not,  to  be 
sure,  a  poet  of  any  remarkable  natural  gifts  or  technical 
skill.  Indeed,  his  work  was  frequently  clumsy  and  rough. 
Yet  for  the  spirit  that  animates  his  poems,  a  spirit  com- 
pounded of  humility  and  true  reverence,  he  is  memorable 
among  the  religious  writers  of  his  century.  Moreover, 
something  of  lyrical  grace  and  something  of  narrative 
vigor  save  his  verse  from  the  lower  circles  of  dulness. 
Whether  in  legends,  in  hymns  of  invocation  to  the  saints, 
or  in  his  gruesome  moral  tale  De  tribus  Regibus  Mortuis, 
he  has  a  note  of  his  own  and  an  imagination  that  outruns 
his  power  of  expression. 

The  little  we  know  about  Audelay  is  due  to  his  own 
references  to  himself.  No  less  than  seventeen  times  he 
set  down  his  name,  frequently  with  the  addition  that  he 
was  blind,  or  blind  and  deaf.  He  was,  we  learn,  a  chap- 
lain at  Haghmon  Abbey,  a  house  of  Augustinian  Canons 
near  Shrewsbury;  and  he  himself  says  that  he  was  the 
first  priest  of  the  chantry  of  Lord  Strange  at  Haghmon. 
He  must,  it  would  appear,  have  written  most  of  his  verse 
about  the  year  1426,  and  he  must  have  died  about  1430. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     2o5 

Further  than  this  we  have  no  information  about  his 
career;  we  know  only  that  he  was  a  pious  and  humble 
soul  who  was  impelled  by  a  vision  to  write,  and  that  he 
considered  the  Lollards  enemies  of  God. 

Tlie_firs_tie#end  that  he  composed  seems  to  have  been 
a  rendering  of  the  Vision  of  Paul,  very  similar  in  content 
to  the  version  of  the  mid-fourteenth  century  and  based 
on  the  same  Latin  original.  It  is,  however,  very  different 
in  manner  from  the  earlier  work  which  it  so  much  re- 
sembles in  content.  John  Audelay  had  the  passion  for 
elaborately  interlaced  rhymes  that  was  characteristic  of 
the  generations  following  Chaucer,  and  he  wrote  his  vision 
of  the  torments  of  Hell  in  twenty-eight  stanzas  of  thirteen 
lines  apiece,  a  form  too  difficult  for  him  to  manage  satis- 
factorily. 

Far  more  interesting  and  important  is  Audelay \s  Salu- 
tation  to  Saint  Bridget,  which  is  in  reality  a  brief  life  of 
the  sainted  Swedish  princess,  though  formally  an  invo- 
cation. The  poet's  devotion  to  her  was  natural,  since  he 
was  a  member  of  an  Augustinian  house  and  Bridget  had 
chosen  the  rule  of  St.  Austin  for  her  great  monastery  in 
Sweden.  He  describes  the  foundation  by  Henry  Vof  Sion 
House,  which  took  place  in  1413,  forty  years  after  the 
saint's  death.  This  was  the  only  important  Brigettinc 
establishment  in  England.  He  adds  a  prayer  "for  young 
King  Harry"  I  lie  Sixth.  It  is  noteworthy  that  this  life  of 
St.  Bnd^ej.  followed  so  soon  on  her  canonization,  which 
took  place  in  LS9L  There  is  no  other  ease  of  the  sort  in 
the  entire  history  of  the  English  vernacular  legends,  the 


256  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

only  instance  approximating  it  being  that  of  St.  Guthlac 
in  the  eighth  century.  The  Salutation  of  St.  Bridget, 
which  has  never  yet  been  printed,  is  a  poem  of  twenty- 
three  nine-line  stanzas. 

More  accomplished  as  a  piece  of  versification  is  Aude- 
lay's  third  legend,  a  life  of  St.  Wenefred  in  thirty  four-line 
stanzas.  The  greater  success  of  this  piece  is  not  to  be 
ascribed,  however,  to  any  simplification  of  structure, 
since  the  poet  ingeniously  used  the  same  rhyme  for  the 
fourth  line  of  every  stanza  throughout  the  poem.  In 
spite  of  the  difficulties  that  he  thus  created  for  himself, 
he  was  not  unsuccessful  in  compressing  the  chief  points  of 
the  Wenefred  legend  into  short  compass.  No  doubt  his 
special  interest  in  the  saint  was  due  to  the  proximity  of 
Haghmon  Abbey  to  Holywell,  where  Wenefred  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  beheaded  and  miraculously  restored 
to  life.  In  Audelay's  time  pilgrims  resorted  thither  in 
vast  numbers,  attracted  by  the  spring  which  was  said  to 
mark  the  spot.  St.  Wenefred,  which  the  author  curiously 
termed  a  "carol,"  has  not  yet  been  edited. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  most  celebrated  legend- 
writer  of  the  fifteenth  century,  John  Lydgate,  who  was, 
as  well,  its  most  popular  poet  in  other  genres.  With  the 
Benedictine  house  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  of  which  he  was 
a  member,  his  name  is  inseparably  connected.  His  literary 
career  began  long  before  that  of  Audelay  and  extended 
well  beyond  it,  for  he  was  born  about  1370  and  did  not 
die  until  after  1446,  as  we  know  from  a  document  of 
that  year.   An  industrious  writer,  he  was  perhaps  more 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     257 

nearly  a  professional  poet,  in  the  modern  sense,  than 
anyone  else  who  used  the  English  tongue  before  the  inven- 
tion of  printing.  Even  Chaucer,  who  can  truthfully  be 
called  the  "father  of  English  poetry"  in  this  sense  at 
least,  was  less  exclusively  dependent  on  his  art  for  liveli- 
hood and  favor.  During  his  long  activity  Lydgate  com- 
posed, so  Professor  Schick  has  reckoned,  more  than  one 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand  lines:  a  calculation  that 
still  leaves  out  of  account  everything  save  his  major 
works.  He  could  have  had  time  and  vigor,  one  must 
suppose,  for  little  else  than  his  poetry;  and,  indeed,  there 
is  no  evidence  that  he  was  in  any  way  prominent  except 
as  a  poet,  though  he  received  a  full  measure  of  renown 
at  the  hands  of  his  contemporaries. 

The  record  of  his  life,  as  far  as  outward  events  are 
concerned,  is  very  slight.  Quite  possibly,  however,  we 
know  all  the  essential  facts  and  should  gain  little  by  dis- 
covering that  he  was  in  this  place  or  that,  in  a  particular 
year.  What  we  need  for  an  understanding  of  his  career  is 
a  more  exact  chronology  of  his  works  rather  than  com- 
pleter annals  of  his  life.  He  was  born,  so  he  tells  us,  at  Lyd- 
gate, near  Newmarket,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  placed 
in  the  great  abbey  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds  when  he  was 
about  fifteen  years  old.  According  to  tradition,  he  studied 
at  Oxford  also,  but  there  is  no  proof  of  it.  At  all  events,  he 
took  the  four  minor  orders  of  the  Church  in  1889,  and 
was  ordained  priest  in  1:597.  In  1423  he  was  elected  prior 
of  Hatfield  Uroadokc,  otherwise  Hatfield  Regis.  How 
successfully  he  discharged  the  duties  of  his  office  there 


258  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

we  are  not  informed,  although  we  are  permitted  to  feel 
some  doubts  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  1434  he  re- 
ceived permission  to  return  to  Bury  "  propter  frugem 
melioris  vitae  captandam."  Meanwhile,  he  was  in  Paris 
in  1426  or  thereabouts,  for  what  purpose  or  for  how  long 
we  do  not  know.  As  late  as  1445  he  was  making  verses 
for  the  pageants  that  celebrated  the  entry  of  Queen 
Margaret  into  London,  and  about  a  year  later  was  men- 
tioned as  living,  by  an  admirer  who  sang  his  praises 
loudly.  A  record  of  the  payment  of  a  pension  in  1446  is 
the  last  explicit  reference  to  him  that  has  been  discovered. 
From  the  subsequent  silence  his  death  not  long  after  is 
to  be  conjectured. 

Lydgate's  work  was  divided,  as  Professor  Schick  has 
suggested,  into  two  periods:  that  done  before  1412,  and 
the  quite  extraordinary  amount  of  verse  that  he  wrote 
after  that  date.  This  arrangement  helps  one  understand 
his  career,  if  it  be  considered  as  a  whole.  Undoubtedly 
the  longer  poems  written  before  Lydgate  was  fifty  have 
not  the  fluent  dulness  of  his  later  translations.  Yet  with 
regard  to  his  saints'  lives  there  is  little  to  be  learned  from 
such  an  analysis.  Of  the  ten  legends  that  he  wrote,  not 
including  for  the  moment  a  poetical  Calendar,  only  one 
can  be  dated  before  1412;  and  little  or  no  difference  in 
manner  can  be  detected,  I  think,  between  the  earlier  and 
the  later  works.  It  is  not  even  important  that  he  should 
have  composed  the  greater  number  of  his  legends  when 
he  was  past  middle  life,  for  most  of  them  were  done  by 
command,  which  testifies  merely  to  his  renown. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     259 

Nevertheless,  we  must  not  fail  to  note  that  his  most 
important  contribution  to  hagiography,  The  Life  of  Our 
Lady,  was  written  between  1409  and  1411.  Professor 
Schick  has  established  the  date  beyond  reasonable  doubt. 
This  poem  is  a  work  of  nearly  six  thousand  lines,  in 
rhyme  royal  —  Chaucer's  stanza,  it  will  be  remembered 
—  and  is  divided  into  four  books.  In  scope  it  is  the 
completest  life  of  the  Virgin  that  has  ever  been  made  in 
English  verse,  embracing  not  only  the  story  of  the  Gos- 
pels but  also  the  apocryphal  accounts  of  Mary's  life  and 
death.  The  sources  upon  which  Lydgate  drew  for  his 
material  have  not  yet  been  carefully  studied,  and  cannot 
well  be  until  the  long-promised  edition  by  Dr.  Fiedler 
is  issued.  But  it  is  not  for  out-of-the-way  stories  that 
one  would  turn  to  the  book;  it  is,  rather,  for  the  fluent 
grace  with  which  the  poet  has  treated  an  old  theme. 
Whatever  opinions  one  may  hold  with  regard  to  Lyd- 
gate's  talent,  it  is  undeniable  that  he  possessed  in  a 
marked  degree  two  qualities  very  necessary  to  success  in 
the  writing  of  saints'  lives.  He  showed,  all  his  critics 
admit,  a  humility  which  cannot  be  explained  as  mere 
conventional  self -depreciation;  and  he  was  truly  rever- 
ent i;il  of  spirit.  These  characteristics  are  everywhere  ap- 
parent in  The  Life  of  Our  Lady  and  give  ii  g  lone  of  genu- 
ine devotion.  Arid  it  is,  at  times,  for  Lydgate  was  uneven 
in  execution  and  lacked  the  imaginative  grasp  of  the 
greal  masters  of  verse;  bul  as  a  whole  it  is  a  noble  treat- 
ment of  its  subject  and  worthy  of  remembrance.  Our 
Benedictine  monk's  dulness  is  often  the  result,  I  believe, 


260  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

of  not  too  deep-seated  learning,  which  betrayed  him  into 
pedantic  silliness.  Fluency  alone  does  not  account  for  his 
pages  of  unilluminated  rhyme.  In  The  Life  of  Our  Lady, 
fortunately,  his  vein  of  folly  was  checked  by  his  religious 
feeling;  he  responded  to  the  inspiration  of  a  subject  that 
was  to  him  a  matter  of  sincerest  concern.  The  Life  of  Our 
Lady  is  not  so  well  known  to  modern  students  as  are 
Lydgate's  other  major  works,  but  largely  because  it  has 
not  been  readily  accessible.  Its  early  popularity  is  at- 
tested by  the  number  of  manuscript  copies  that  were  made 
of  it  —  nearly  forty  are  known  to  be  extant  —  as  well 
as  by  the  early  prints  of  Caxton  and  Redman;  and  its 
popularity  was  deserved. 

No  legend  from  Lydgate's  pen,  save  the  one  just  dis- 
cussed, can  be  dated  earlier  than  1426.  Indeed,  as  to  the 
date  of  St.  George,  which  comes  next  in  the  list,  we  have 
no  clue  except  that  it  must  have  been  made,  as  Miss 
Hammond  has  shown,  after  that  year.  One  can  say  of  it 
without  scruple  and  with  entire  justice  that  its  sole  inter- 
est lies  in  the  fact  of  its  existence.  It  does  nothing  more 
than  rehearse  in  thirty  stanzas  (again  rhyme  royal)  the 
commonplaces  of  the  later  legend  of  St.  George.  It  was, 
however,  written  for  the  Armorers  of  London  to  be  "  the 
devyse  of  a  steyned  halle,"  in  the  words  of  a  contem- 
porary copyist;  and  by  reason  of  this  purpose  it  takes  on 
a  value  in  archaeology  that  it  does  not  possess  as  litera- 
ture. Just  how  such  poems  were  used  we  do  not  yet 
know,  for  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  two  or  three 
hundred  lines  of  verse  could  be  woven  into  tapestry  or 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     261 

painted  as  descriptive  comment  upon  pictures.  Yet  Lyd- 
gate  composed  this  legend,  we  are  told  on  excellent  au- 
thority, "at  the  request  of  tharmorieres  of  Londonn  for 
thonour  of  theyre  brotherhoode  and  they  re  feest  of  saint 
George."  Moreover,  Lydgate  on  at  least  three  other  oc- 
casions made  verses  to  accompany  pictorial  decorations. 
The  wonder  is  that  so  feeble  and  undramatic  a  work  as 
this  legend  could  have  been  used  in  such  a  way. 

The  passion  of  St.  Margaret,  which  had  already  in- 
spired native  legend-writers  —  once  with  notable  success 
—  furnished  Lydgate  a  subject  perhaps  more  congenial 
to  his  taste  than  England's  patron  saint.  At  all  events,  he 
made  of  it  a  poem  so  good  that  it  ranks  among  his  best, 
and  among  the  best  legends  of  the  fifteenth  century.  He 
used  rhyme  royal,  as  in  most  of  his  legends,  varying  the 
metrical  scheme  by  appending  a  ballade.  Unaffected,  un- 
pretentious, and  wholly  undramatic,  the  seventy-seven 
stanzas  are  perfectly  in  keeping  with  the  matter  of  the 
story.  They  ape  no  other  genre,  and  they  strain  for  no 
quality  that  is  not  theirs  by  what  seems  natural  right. 
Lydgate  often  blundered,  but  sometimes,  when  he  dealt 
with  a  theme  requiring  no  sharp  contrasts  but  much 
sweetness,  he  exhibited  great  literary  tact.  There  is  al- 
most nothing  in  St.  Margaret  that  one  could  wish  to  have 
away,  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  genuine  beauty.  As 
always,  Lydgate  sutlers  from  seeming  more  modern  than 
he  is:  a  careless  reading  is  likely  to  make  one  think  his 
work  easy  t<>  understand  but  poetically  crude.  In  the 
St.  Margaret,  as  elsewhere,  our  taste  cannol  well  approve 


262  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

his  special  fondness  for  rhyming  words  of  Latin  or  Ro- 
mance derivation;  but  in  other  respects  there  is  little  to 
find  fault  with  in  the  technique  of  his  verse.  He  himself 
speaks  of  "compiling"  St.  Margaret  for  Lady  March, 
yet  he  seems  not  to  have  gone  far  afield  for  his  material. 
The  poem  was  based  on  the  epitome  of  the  saint's  life  in 
Legenda  Aurea,  and  was  merely  a  free  rendering  of  that 
text.  According  to  the  statement  of  a  scribe  whom  we 
have  no  reason  to  doubt,  it  was  made  in  the  eighth  year 
of  Henry  VI,  that  is,  between  August  31,  1429,  and 
August  31,  1430. 

In  the  same  year  Lydgate  wrote  a  brief  poem  for  a 
Christmas  mumming  before  the  King  at  Windsor:  for 
the  Christmas  festivities  of  1429-30.  It  relates  an 
incident  from  the  legend  of  St.  Clotilda,  and  is  un- 
distinguished save  in  the  circumstances  of  its  produc- 
tion. 

About  three  years  later,  as  we  know  from  a  reference 
to  a  visit  of  Henry  VI  to  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  Lydgate  was 
commissioned  by  Abbot  William  to  make  a  life  of  the 
East  Anglian  king  and  martyr  to  whom  the  monastery 
was  dedicated.  This  work,  which  he  thus  began  in  1433, 
must  have  been  to  Lydgate  the  occasion  of  much  pride. 
It  was  addressed  to  the  King  and,  when  completed,  was 
presented  to  him  in  a  beautiful  copy  that  is  still  preserved. 
Possibly  to  the  humble  poet's  nervous  dread  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  so  august  a  reader  may  be  attributed  some 
of  the  faults  of  the  St.  Edmund.  In  contrast  with  the  St. 
Margaret,  it  parades  a  show  of  learning  that  not  only  re- 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     2C3 

tarda  the  progress  of  the  narrative  but  frequently  becomes 
ridiculous.   Although  Lydgate  says:  — 

In  Tullius  gardeyn  I  gadrid  never  floures, 
Nor  never  slepte  upon  Citheroun, 

he  embellished  his  story  with  every  device  within  his 
power.  But  his  sententious  comments  are  clumsy,  his 
learned  allusions  dull,  his  rhetoric  is  stilted.  The  good 
qualities  which  he  shows  elsewhere  are  so  buried  in  ver- 
biage that  the  three  books  of  the  poem  stretch  themselves 
out  wearily,  in  spite  of  an  occasional  graceful  turn.  The 
unwieldly  bulk  of  the  legend  is  swollen,  moreover,  by 
the  fact  that  the  third  book  is  devoted  to  St.  Edmund's 
cousin,  Fremund.  This  device  of  amplification  may  have 
been  pleasing  to  the  royal  patron,  but  it  does  not  add  to 
the  structural  excellence  of  the  work.  Again  rhyme  royal 
was  employed,  but  for  the  most  part  with  the  fluent 
flatness  that  was  the  poet's  bane.  His  better  style  is 
shown  in  the  final  address  to  the  king. 

Sovereyn  lord,  plese  to  your  goodlyheed 

And  to  your  gracious  royal  magnyfieence 

To  take  this  tretys,  which  a-twen  hope  and  dreed 

Present  yd  ys  to  your  hyh  excellence. 

And  for  kyng  Kdmundis  notable  reverence 

Beth  tn  his  chyrche  dyfFenee  and  champioun, 

Be-caiue  yt  ys  off  your  fundacioun. 

Even  longer  than  the  St.  Edmund  is  the  life  of  St. 
AJIkui  that  Lydgate  made  in  1  139,  ami  even  less  success- 
fill.  Again  he  was  writing  a  double  legend,  for  he  followed 
t  he  common  tradition  in  joining  the  story  of  the  shadowy 


264  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

Amphibalus  to  the  passion  of  England's  proto-martyr. 
To  Alban  he  devoted  two  books  and  to  Amphibalus  a 
third  —  precisely  the  plan  he  had  adopted  for  St.  Ed- 
mund. This  similarity  of  plan  may  help  to  account  for 
the  inferiority  of  the  St.  Alban  ;  it  may  have  led  him  into 
a  duller  prolixity.  He  could  scarcely  have  felt,  moreover, 
the  same  personal  interest  in  St.  Alban  as  in  the  patron 
of  his  own  abbey.  Certainly  this  work  of  more  than  four 
thousand  seven  hundred  verses,  in  stanzas  of  seven  and 
eight  lines,  never  shows  any  depth  of  feeling  and  never 
rises  to  any  beauty.  It  was  made  to  order,  and  shows  it. 

In  1444,  not  long  before  his  death,  that  is,  Lydgate 
wrote  the  last  of  his  legends  that  can  be  dated.  It  was 
composed  as  an  appendix  to  St.  Edmund  and  deals  with 
the  later  miracles  of  the  saint,  two  of  them  performed  at 
Bury  St.  Edmunds  itself  in  the  very  year  when  the  verses 
were  made.  The  Miracles  of  St.  Edmund,  however,  has 
no  value  save  as  a  document;  Lydgate's  poetical  gift 
seems  by  this  time  to  have  deserted  him  utterly.  His 
eight-line  stanzas  are  strung  together  without  art,  and 
individually  they  have  neither  grace  nor  strength.  Only 
from  the  fact  that  the  miracles  all  concern  rescues  of 
little  children  have  they  much  interest :  it  is  a  pleasingly 
sentimental  reflection  that  among  the  last  verses  of  the 
old  monk  were  these,  so  sympathetic  with  childhood. 

Of  the  undated  legends,  the  most  considerable  are  a 
St.  Giles  and  a  St.  Austin  at  Compton,  both  of  them  in  the 
eight-line  stanza  which  Lydgate  used  for  such  purposes 
in  alternation  with  rhyme  royal.  Neither  poem  has  much 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE   REFORMATION     265 

merit,  although  the  second  has  some  interest  for  the 
story  of  St.  Augustine  that  it  relates.  It  tells  in  summary 
fashion,  but  with  the  prolixity  of  introduction  that  was 
one  of  Lydgate's  besetting  sins,  how  the  saint  brought  to 
terms  a  knight  who  refused  to  pay  his  tithes.  "  Dul  and 
old"  the  poet  calls  himself  in  an  envoi ;  and  we  may  pass 
over  the  faults  of  the  little  treatise  with  the  remark  that 
it  was  an  undistinguished  work  of  pious  senility.  The 
St.  Giles  bears  no  evidence  as  to  its  date  save  its  excessive 
pedantry.  Although  it  was  called  a  translation,  it  is  em- 
bellished by  a  variety  of  conceits  and  allusions  that  sug- 
gest a  hardening  of  the  poet's  manner  into  mechanical 
dexterity.  It  was  made  at  the  instance  of  some  patron 
who  is  vaguely  referred  to  as  a  "creature,"  and  it  is 
clumsy  both  in  diction  and  in  structure.  On  the  show- 
ing of  such  a  work,  Lydgate  would  merit  little  considera- 
tion. 

A  Procession  of  Corpus  Christi  cannot  strictly  be  termed 
a  legend,  for  it  is  a  running  narrative  of  the  testimony 
borne  to  the  honor  of  the  sacramental  host  from  the 
earliest  days  to  the  time  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  Yet  so 
closely  similar  is  it  in  manner  to  Lydgate's  saints'  lives 
that  it  should  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  them. 
We  have  no  clue  as  to  its  date;  and  we  have  not  yet  been 
informed  whether  it  was  based  on  any  earlier  treatise 
concerning  the  feast  of  Corpus  Christi.  Quite  clearly  it 
was  intended  to  nsher  in  some  dramatic  spectacle.  It  is 
brief,  and  comparatively  Simple  and  direct  of  phrasing, 
not  unlike  in  these  ways  the  better  lyrical  invocations  and 


266  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

prayers  to  the  saints,  more  than  a  dozen  of  which  are  to  be 
found  among  Lydgate's  authentic  works.  Another  brief 
legend,  St.  Petronilla,  has  been  confidently  assigned  to 
the  poet  by  Professor  MacCracken  in  his  ambitious  Lyd- 
gate Canon.  It  may  well  be  from  his  pen,  and  is  certainly 
of  his  school.  Further  than  this,  in  default  of  any  external 
evidence,  it  is  hardly  safe  to  go  with  reference  to  a  poem 
of  no  special  worth  that  is  but  one  hundred  and  sixty-four 
lines  in  length. 

To  this  list  of  Lydgate's  legends  is  to  be  added  a 
Calendar  of  holy-days  throughout  the  year.  Nothing  of 
the  sort  had  been  attempted  in  English  verse,  so  far  as 
we  know,  since  the  Norman  Conquest.  The  work  has  no 
merit  as  verse,  but  it  furnishes  a  curious  and  not  unin- 
teresting list  of  saints.  Made,  as  the  scribe  of  one  manu- 
script puts  it,  "  after  the  forme  of  a  compote  manuelle," 
it  gives  an  accurate  notion  of  what  days  were  kept  in  a 
great  monastery  like  Bury  St.  Edmunds;  and,  like  some 
of  the  earlier  menologies,  it  characterizes  many  of  the 
saints  by  at  least  a  phrase.  Nevertheless,  Lydgate  had 
not  the  art  of  condensed  statement  at  his  command.  A 
less  fluent  man  of  letters  might  have  made  a  calendar  at 
once  more  inclusive  and  more  informing. 

During  the  latter  part  of  Lydgate's  life,  Osbern  Boke- 
nam,  whose  collection  of  legends  of  women  saints  was 
discussed  in  the  chapter  preceding  this,  was  doing  his 
work  as  a  humble  follower  of  the  renowned  Benedictine 
monk.  Bokenam,  in  his  acknowledgment  of  literary  ob- 
ligations, mentions  along  with  Lydgate  John  Capgrave, 


TIIE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    2(57 

an  Austin  friar  like  himself,  but  a  far  more  prosperous 
and  successful  person. 

Myii  cuntre  is  Xorthfolkc,  of  the  town  of  Lynne, 

Capgrave  says  in  the  prologue  of  his  most  considerable 
verse  legend;  and  in  his  Chronicle  of  England  he  informs 
us  that  he  was  born  on  April  21,  1394.  It  is  not  known 
where  he  got  his  education,  but  it  can  safely  be  assumed 
that  he  was  under  the  direction  of  the  Austin  friars  at 
Lynn  from  an  early  age.  In  141G  or  1417  he  was  ordained 
priest,  which  means  that  he  must  have  progressed  by 
natural  and  uninterrupted  stages  to  full  orders.  More- 
over, he  seems  to  have  won  recognition  at  once  as  a  man 
of  some  gifts,  for  we  find  him  preaching  a  series  of  sermons 
at  Cambridge  when  he  was  thirty  years  old.  Soon  after 
1  \!>  he  wont  to  Rome  and  there  fell  ill,  as  we  know  from 
the  dedicatory  letter  of  one  of  his  Latin  works;  but  he 
has  left  us  no  information  about  his  subsequent  career. 
That  he  fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  youth  we  cannot 
doubt,  however.  Two  deeds  of  1456  show  that  at  that 
time  he  bore  the  titles  of  Prior  and  Provincial  of  his 
order.  Since  he  was  at  Lynn  some  years  before  that  date 
it  would  appeal  that  he  was  Prior  of  the  Augustinian 
house  at  that  place,  while  his  jurisdiction  as  Provincial 
extended  at  leasl  aa  far  as  Oxford.   He  died  in  1404. 

From  sueh  scattering  data  as  we  possess  we  may  infer 
that  Capgrave  had  an  active  as  well  as  successful  life. 

Tin-re  is  no  reason,  moreover,  for  supposing  that  he  was 
anything  but    an    upright    and   high-minded   man.    The 


268  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

inferences  of  some  of  his  editors  that  he  was  a  time-serving 
bigot  are  based  on  nothing  except  their  dissent  from  his 
opinions.  That  he  violently  hated  Wyclif  and  believed 
evil  of  Wyclif's  followers  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  moral 
flaw  unless  one  is  going  to  demand  impartial  omniscience 
of  all  men;  nor  can  it  be  imputed  as  a  fault  to  a  busy 
preaching  friar  that  he  did  not  refuse  homage  to  Edward 
IV  after  having  been  a  loyal  subject  of  Henry  VI.  A  con- 
sideration of  what  he  accomplished  shows  that  he  must 
have  been,  indeed,  a  very  busy  non-political  man. 

In  addition  to  performing  his  duties  as  preacher  and 
executive  officer,  he  wrote  one  considerable  historical 
work  in  English  and  two  in  Latin;  he  compiled  an  Eng- 
lish Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  Rome;  he  was  the  author  of 
many  theological  treatises  in  Latin,  most  of  which  are 
not  known  to  survive ;  he  is  credited  with  having  revised 
a  large  collection  of  Latin  lives  of  English  saints,  first 
assembled  by  John  of  Tynemouth  and  known  to  us  as 
Nova  Legenda  Anglioe,  though  we  have  no  certain  knowl- 
edge about  his  connection  with  this  undertaking;  and  he 
put  together  or  translated  at  least  five  saints'  lives  of 
larger  scope,  four  of  them  in  English.  In  variety  and 
in  quantity,  it  will  be  seen,  his  literary  production  was 
somewhat  remarkable  for  a  man  who  did  so  many  other 
things  besides.  That  he  had  the  highest  talent  cannot  be 
asserted:  it  is  rather  as  an  industrious  and  intelligent 
worker  on  the  borderlands  between  scholarship  and  liter- 
ature that  he  deserves  his  measure  of  fame. 

Of  his  four  saints'  lives  in  English,  the  first  that  he 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     269 

wrote  was  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria.  The  date  of  this 
poem  of  epic  length  we  do  not  know.  It  must  have  been 
written  before  1440,  when  Capgrave  finished  (in  Assump- 
tion week,  he  says)  his  St.  Xorbert,  but  how  long  before  that 
time  has  not  yet  been  determined.  In  any  event,  it  must 
have  been  made  when  the  author  was  in  the  full  vigor  of 
his  active  life;  and  it  is  representative  both  of  his  merits 
and  of  his  weaknesses  as  a  versifier.  It  is  divided  into 
five  books,  each  of  which  is  prefaced  by  a  prologue  of 
discursive  and  personal  character,  and  it  extends  to 
more  than  eight  thousand  lines,  all  told.  The  metre  is  the 
familiar  rhyme  royal.  St.  Norbert,  which  is  in  the  same 
stanza,  is  less  than  half  as  long  as  St.  Catharine.  The  St. 
Xorbert,  unfortunately,  has  not  yet  been  edited;  and  I 
must  plead  ignorance  of  its  contents,  save  for  a  few 
specimen  extracts.  One  cannot  suppose,  however,  that  it 
differs  greatly  in  treatment  from  the  earlier  poem.  Cap- 
grave  wrote  it  for  John  Wygnale,  Abbot  of  West  Dereham 
in  Norfolk,  a  Premonstratensian  house,  for  which  a  life 
of  the  founder  of  the  order  would  naturally  be  in  request. 
What  special  purpose,  if  any,  Capgrave  had  in  writing 
the  St.  Catharine  I  do  not  know.  In  the  prologue  of  the 
first  book  he  tells  a  somewhat  self-contradictory  story 
about  a  priest  named  Arrck,  from  whose  Latin  version  he 
pretends  to  have  translated  the  work.  Of  Arrek  we  know 
nothing  whatever,  and  are  perhaps  justified  in  feeling 
some  doubts  as  to  whether  he  was  not  a  fictitious  person, 
rather  than  the  incumbent  of  St .  Paneras'  in  London  and 
a  west-COUntry  man  who  died  at   Lynn.    Certainly  it  is 


270  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

hard  to  believe  that  he  lived  for  twelve  years  in  Alex- 
andria in  order  to  learn  Greek  and  that  he  made  a  par- 
tial English  translation  of  the  legend  as  well  as  his  Latin 
version.  Capgrave  must,  I  think,  have  been  romancing, 
although  it  is  scarcely  safe  to  say  so  until  a  careful  study 
has  been  made  of  his  sources.  The  only  thing  one  can 
be  sure  of  at  present  is  that  his  version  was  ultimately 
based  on  the  pseudo-Athanasian  Life  of  Catharine. 

Until  we  know  more  about  his  sources,  indeed,  it  is 
difficult  to  form  an  adequate  estimate  of  Capgrave's  per- 
formance as  a  whole.  Yet  it  is  clear  that  he  must  have 
treated  his  materials  with  a  good  deal  of  freedom,  and 
that  the  work  as  it  stands  is  Capgrave's  own.  That  it  is 
of  tedious  length  no  reader  of  it  would  deny.  The  most 
successful  versions  of  the  Catharine  legend  are  those  in 
which  the  harangues  and  arguments  of  the  saint  have 
been  cut  down ;  and  more  than  half  of  Capgrave's  fourth 
book  is  devoted  to  her  debate  with  the  philosophers.  He 
had  not  the  power  of  seizing  the  great  moments  of  a 
story  in  epic  fashion  and  subordinating  unnecessary  de- 
tail. On  the  other  hand,  the  movement  of  events  is 
straightforward  and,  in  itself,  good.  The  most  interesting 
of  the  five  books  is  certainly  the  third,  which  tells  of  the 
saint's  conversion  through  the  hermit  Adrian,  of  her  bap- 
tism, and  of  her  mystic  espousal  by  Christ.  Here  the 
tedium  of  the  narrative  is  lifted  into  warmth  and  light: 
the  dull  plodding  of  the  stanzas  ceases  for  a  time  to  dis- 
tract the  reader,  as  the  glories  of  the  Christian  message 
are  revealed  to  the  high-born  maiden.    Capgrave  was 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION    271 

never  without  metrical  fluency  and  a  personal  style  in 
verse  that  marks  a  degree  of  mastery.  His  tendency  to 
run  on  the  thought  from  stanza  to  stanza,  often  ending 
a  sentence  with  the  first  or  second  line  of  the  new  stanza, 
helps  to  weave  the  narrative  into  consistency.  Were  it 
not  that  his  facility  leads  him  into  prosiness,  and  that  he 
often  overloads  his  verse  with  learned  references  in  the 
fashion  of  his  day,  he  would  be  a  poet  in  whom  one  could 
take  real  delight.  Occasionally,  by  apt  homely  allusions 
or  by  descriptions  such  as  that  of  Maxentius'  gods  in  the 
fourth  book,  he  recalls  Chaucer.  The  pity  is  the  greater 
that  he  never  learned  to  curb  his  pen  and  to  give  the 
individual  moments  of  his  narrative  higher  intensity. 

An  account  of  Capgrave's  two  legends  in  prose  may  be 
deferred  for  a  little  until  we  have  examined  the  few  re- 
maining saints'  lives  in  verse  that  the  century  produced. 
First  of  them  should  be  mentioned  a  St.  Dorothy,  which 
was  the  work  either  of  Capgrave  himself  or  of  some  writer 
who  had  been  influenced  by  him  and  who  was  of  his 
region.  This  St.  Dorothy,  a  poem  of  three  hundred  and 
forty-four  verses  in  eight-line  stanzas,  is  known  from  two 
manuscripts,  one  of  which  (Arundel  108)  contains  also  a 
copy  of  Capgrave's  Cothnrine.  It  is  not  assigned  to  Cap- 
grave  by  tin-  scribes;  but  it  recalls  his  work  in  style,  and 
it  has  Buch  of  his  linguist  ic  peculiarities  as  can  be  certified 
by  rhyme.  On  these  accounts  I  am  inclined,  though  hes- 
itatingly, t<>  believe  thai  it  should  be  attributed  to  him. 
However,  it  can  neither  make  nor  mar  his  reputation,  for 

it  is  an  undistinguished  translation  of  the  vulgate  Latin 


272  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

text  published  in  the  appendix  of  Legenda  Aurea,  and 
has  no  striking  characteristics  of  any  kind.  In  content  it 
differs  very  slightly  from  Bokenam's  verse  translation  of 
the  same  Latin  text. 

In  another  very  brief  legend  of  the  period,  an  account 
in  rhymed  couplets  of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Erasmus, 
with  an  oratio  to  the  saint,  can  be  traced  the  influence 
of  Lydgate,  though  it  is  scarcely  the  work  of  Lydgate 
himself.  Except  as  evidence  that  the  martyred  Bishop 
of  Formise  was  reverenced  in  England  at  the  time,  a  fact 
made  clearer  by  the  existence  of  our  verse  legend  in  two 
slightly  different  redactions,  this  St.  Erasmus  has  no  im- 
portance. 

Later  than  this,  from  about  the  middle  of  the  century 
onwards  to  the  Reformation,  only  six  saints'  lives  in 
verse  were  composed,  so  far  as  I  know.  To  nothing  else 
than  the  disturbances  consequent  upon  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses  can  I  attribute  this  sudden  cessation  of  activity  in 
a  field  that  had  been  so  popular,  though  I  am  conscious 
that  the  explanation,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  prose  leg- 
ends continued  to  be  written,  is  not  wholly  adequate.  Cu- 
riously enough,  the  six  works  to  which  I  have  alluded 
were  all  local  legends.  For  this  phenomenon  I  can  see  no 
reason:  I  can  but  set  down  the  fact. 

About  the  middle  of  the  century  was  written  The  Holy 
Blood  of  Hales,  which  recounts  how  an  unnamed  Jew 
(Joseph  of  Arimathea,  of  course)  preserved  some  of 
Christ's  blood  and  was  imprisoned  with  it  till  the  coming 
of  Titus  and  Vespasian.  By  them  it  was  taken  with  other 


THE  CONQUEST  TO   THE  REFORMATION     273 

relics  to  Rome,  whence  half  of  it  was  removed  by  Charle- 
magne to  Treves.  There  it  was  found  by  Earl  Edmund 
of  Cornwall,  whose  father  Richard  was  King  of  the 
Romans  from  1257  to  l^oO,  and  a  portion  of  it  brought 
to  England.  In  lc270  the  earl  gave  it  to  the  Abbey  of 
Hales,  or  Hales-Owcn,  in  Shropshire,  a  Premonstraten- 
sian  house  founded  by  King  John.  The  writer  testified 
that  "plentious"  miracles  were  still  performed  at  the 
shrine  in  his  day,  and  he  avowedly  wrote  to  combat  the 
doubts  that  had  been  raised  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the 
relic.  He  told  his  story  in  one  hundred  quatrains  with 
alternate  rhymes,  and  he  was  wholly  without  poetical 
gifts.  Nevertheless,  the  legend  has  considerable  docu- 
mentary value,  for  accounts  of  such  shrines  in  mediaeval 
England  are  all  too  few.  Dr.  Horstmann,  who  published 
the  text,  doubtfully  ascribed  it  to  the  dialect  of  Cornwall, 
though  for  no  reason  that  I  can  discover  save  that  Ed- 
mund took  his  title  from  that  county.  Indeed,  the  legend 
seems  to  have  been  wrritten  in  the  West-Midland  district, 
perhaps  not  far  from  Hales  itself.  That  it  was  the  work  of 
a  monk  of  that  abbey  cannot,  however,  be  supposed,  else 
the  author  would  not  refer  to  Hales  as  "there"  instead 
of  "here."  He  was,  according  to  his  own  statement, 
translating  from  Latin:  apparently  from  such  a  text  as  is 
to  be  found  in  an  inedited  manuscript  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge  (B.15.  80).  How  accurately  he  reproduced 
hi-  original  si  ill  awaits  investigal  ion. 
Of  even  greater  interesl  as  a  documenl  than  The  ir<>li/ 

Blood  1S  the  double  legend  of  St.  Wulfhad  and  St.  IxiiJJin, 


274  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

which  was  made  in  Staffordshire  at  about  the  same  time. 
It  is  in  a  clumsy  adaptation  of  the  alliterative  metre,  at 
times  rhyming  in  pairs,  and  it  makes  no  pretences  to 
literary  style.  Its  value  consists  simply  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  written  or  painted  upon  a  "  table,"  on  the  epistle 
side  of  the  choir  in  the  church  at  Stone  Priory,  a  Car- 
thusian house  of  some  importance.  It  is  known  to  us 
solely  through  one  of  the  Cottonian  manuscripts,  and  the 
beginning  of  it  is  almost  illegible.  By  a  curious  chance, 
another  inscription  from  the  gospel  side  of  the  choir, 
which  recounted  the  foundation  of  the  monastery  and 
named  its  benefactors  down  to  the  time  of  Henry  IV, 
has  also  been  preserved  and  can  be  read  in  Dugdale's 
Monasticon.  The  statement  is  there  made  that  this 
second  set  of  verses  was  hanging  "  in  the  Priorie  of  Stone, 
at  the  time  of  the  Suppression  of  the  same."  Limita- 
tions of  space  do  not  permit  me  to  give  the  evidence 
here;  but  these  two  inscriptions,  by  a  double  chance  thus 
known  to  us,  actually  refer  to  one  another  and  indisput- 
ably were  the  work  of  the  same  author.  Whether  they 
were  hung  in  the  choir  itself  or  in  the  ambulatory  is  not 
clear  to  me,  but  it  is  certain  that  they  were  so  placed  as 
to  be  easily  read  by  worshippers  in  the  church.  As  the 
legend  consists  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-two  lines,  and 
the  history  of  the  foundation  runs  to  one  hundred  and 
sixty-two,  the  tablets  on  which  they  were  inscribed  must 
have  been  of  considerable  size.  Taken  in  connection  with 
Lydgate's  poems  for  pictorial  decorations,  they  furnish 
evidence  as  to  English  fashions  of  mural  display  that  is 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     275 

very  important.  Indeed,  the  manner  of  their  use  at  Stone 
Priory  is  much  clearer  than  that  of  Lydgate's  verses. 
The  rhymed  legend  has,  it  should  be  added,  no  inde- 
pendent value  for  the  lives  of  St.  Wulfhad  and  St.  Ruffin, 
since  the  author  of  it  certainly  had  before  him  an  ornate 
Latin  passio  that  is  still  extant.  The  two  saints  were 
Mercian  princes  of  the  seventh  century,  brothers  of  St. 
Werburghe,  converts  of  St.  Chad,  and  martyrs  for  the 
faith. 

Better  known,  at  least  to  students  of  Middle  Eng- 
lish, than  the  legends  just  treated,  are  the  lives  of  St. 
Editha  and  St.  Etheldreda  which  have  been  thought  to 
date  from  the  beginning  of  the  century.  They  were  un- 
doubtedly written  in  the  dialect  of  Wiltshire;  and  quite 
possibly  they  were  the  work  of  the  same  author,  since 
there  are  no  appreciable  linguistic  differences  between 
them  and  since  the  prolix  manner  of  their  compilation  is 
similar.  St.  Editha  was  daughter  of  Edgar,  King  of  Wes- 
sex  in  the  second  half  of  the  tenth  century,  and  won 
great  repute  for  sanctity  by  her  life  as  a  nun  at  Wilton. 
The  fifteenth  century  legend  includes,  in  point  of  fact, 
not  only  her  life  and  miracles,  but  a  history  of  Wilton 
Priory  and  an  account  of  the  West  Saxon  kings  from 
Egbert  onwards.  Considerations  of  space  never  troubled 
the  author,  who  introduced,  for  example,  the  entire  story 
of  tin'  German  Dance  of  Death  as  preface  to  a  recital  of 
the  healing  of  one  of  the  dancers  ;it    the  shrine  of  St. 

Edith.  By  such  means  he  expanded  his  somewhat  sprawl- 
ing work  to  nearly  five  thousand  lines,  not   to  mention  a 


276  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

considerable  section  now  lost.  The  St.  Etheldreda,  which 
is  also  preserved  incompletely,  is  a  shorter  work:  we 
have  of  it  somewhat  more  than  eleven  hundred  verses. 
It  includes,  however,  an  account  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  hep- 
tarchy and  many  genealogical  details  about  the  East- 
Anglian  royal  house  to  which  belonged  St.  Audrey,  the 
foundress  of  Ely.  The  writer  had  access,  as  he  stated,  to 
local  records,  just  as  did  the  compiler  of  St.  Editha :  a 
fact  that  gives  both  legends  a  certain  corroborative  his- 
torical value.  A  careful  study  of  them  from  this  point 
of  view  is  much  to  be  desired. 

Even  more  necessary,  I  believe,  is  a  thoroughgoing  in- 
vestigation of  the  date  at  which  they  were  written,  the 
more  urgently  necessary  because  linguistic  students  are 
accustomed  to  use  them  as  examples  of  Wiltshire  dialect  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.  That  this  was 
their  actual  date  seems  to  me  quite  impossible.   Towards 
the  end  of  St.  Editha  (vv.  4970-72)  the  author  remarked 
that  he  was  using  a  record  of  the  saint's  miracles  made 
three  hundred  and  forty  years  before.  The  latest  miracle 
to  which  he  could  refer  must  have  taken  place  during 
the  reign  of  Henry  I,  who  ruled  from  1100  to  1135.  This 
evidence,  which  is  certainly  more  weighty  than  that  pre- 
sented by  Dr.  Horstmann  and  Professor  Heuser,  would 
bring  the  legend  down  to  about  1450  at  the  very  earliest. 
However,  a  more  elaborate  study  of  the  problem  than  I 
have  as  yet  been  able  to  make  must  be  carried  through 
before  we  can  be  certain  just  when  these  crude  but  inter- 
esting documents  were  written. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     277 

At  the  very  end  of  the  century  —  in  1497,  he  tells  us  — 
Laurentius  Wade  produced  a  life  of  St.  Thomas  of  Can- 
terbury. He  was  a  monk  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury, 
and  had  thus  the  impulse  of  local  tradition  for  his  work. 
He  did  not,  however,  add  anything  to  the  biography  of 
Becket,  but  was  content  to  follow  the  narrative  of  Her- 
bert of  Bosham,  piecing  it  out  with  a  few  brief  excerpts 
from  the  life  by  John  Grandison  of  Exeter.  In  only  one 
respect  did  he  make  of  his  material  anything  but  the 
baldest  translation:  he  moralized  in  the  manner  of  Lyd- 
gate  and  Capgrave.  Indeed,  the  legend  is  a  late  example 
of  their  manner,  a  sporadic  echo  after  silence  had  for 
some  decades  fallen  upon  the  makers  of  lives  of  saints  in 
verse.  It  remains  to  add  that  this  valueless  work  consists 
of  three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  seven-line  stanzas, 
arranged  like  rhyme  royal  but  substituting  an  adapta- 
tion of  the  native  four-beat  line  for  the  normal  one  of 
five  accents. 

The  same  curious  metre  was  used,  but  more  effec- 
tively, by  Henry  Bradshaw,  a  Benedictine  of  Chester, 
in  a  Life  of  St.  Wcrburghe,  which  he  wrote  in  1513. 
Bradshaw,  of  whose  life  we  know  little,  is  said  to  have 
txtn  educated  in  theology  at  Gloucester  College,  Ox- 
ford, but  to  have  passed  most  of  his  days  in  St.  Wer- 
burghe's  monastery  at  Chester.  He  was  also  the  author 
of  a  Latin  work,  De  Antiquitate  et  Maf/nificentia  Urbis 
ChestruB  Chronicon,  and  may  have  written  a  life  of  >SV. 
Radegunde  in  English,  though  the  latter  possibility  rests 
upon  the  casual  al  I  ribution  by  the  gentleman  who  owned 


278  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

the  unique  copy  of  the  legend  some  sixty  years  ago. 
The  St.  Werburghe  is  known  to  us  through  Pynson's 
edition  of  1521.  According  to  a  prologue  in  acrostic  verse 
and  to  two  appended  poems,  Henry  Bradshaw  must  have 
died  in  the  very  year  in  which  he  completed  his  magnum 
opus.  The  praise  of  his  friends  is  somewhat  fulsome,  yet 
a  modicum  of  it  cannot  be  denied  his  poem.  He  was 
the  last  writer  of  verse  legends  before  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  he  was  not  altogether  unworthy  to  close  the 
series. 

The  Life  of  St.  Werburghe  is,  in  reality,  more  than  the 
title  indicates :  it  contains  genealogies  of  the  Old  English 
royal  houses,  brief  lives  of  St.  Audrey  and  St.  Sexburga,  a 
history  of  Chester  down  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  accounts  of  various  miracles  done  through  the  merits 
of  Chester's  patron  saint.  These  mixed  materials  Brad- 
shaw derived  both  from  saints'  lives  and  from  chronicles. 
For  Werburghe's  own  career  and  her  miracles  he  relied 
on  what  he  called  "  the  thrid  Passionary,"  "which  boke 
remayneth  in  Chester  monastery";  but  he  quoted  also 
Bede,  Henry  of  Huntington,  William  of  Malmesbury, 
Giraldus  Cambrensis,  Alfred  of  Beverley,  and  Higden's 
Polychronicon.  He  was,  it  will  be  seen,  a  somewhat 
learned  man;  and,  since  part  of  his  legendary  sources  are 
not  now  known  to  exist,  he  gave  his  work  more  than  a 
little  documentary  value.  As  to  form,  he  was  less  adept. 
Although  he  exclaims :  — 

What  were  mankynde  without  lytterature? 
Full  lytell  worthy  blynded  by  ignoraunce, 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  TIIE  REFORMATION     279 

he  had  little  power  of  co-ordinating  diverse  matters  into 
unity.   He  was  writing 

To  the  comyn  vulgares  thcyr  mynde  to  satysfy, 

and  he  plodded  methodically  through  the  task  with  no 
thought  of  architectonics.  Yet  his  poem  is  not  without 
interest  and  value  as  a  narrative.  The  verse,  at  first 
stiff  and  awkward,  grows  more  supple  as  the  work  pro- 
ceeds, while  the  monk's  visual  imagination  gives  pas- 
sages like  those  describing  Werburghe's  entrance  on  con- 
ventual life  at  Ely,  and  the  translation  of  her  relics  to 
Chester,  a  brilliancy  that  one  would  not  expect  from  the 
duller  parts  of  the  history.  As  a  whole,  when  once  the 
historical  introduction  is  passed,  the  two  books  of  the 
poem  can  be  read  with  considerable  pleasure  as  well  as 
profit.  Through  five  thousand  five  hundred  and  sixty-five 
lines  one  is  carried  not  uncomfortably,  becoming  increas- 
ingly conscious,  the  while,  of  the  swinging  rhythm  in  a 
verse  to  which  it  is  very  difficult  for  the  modern  ear  to 
adjust  itself.  To  show  Bradshaw's  descriptive  powers,  it 
is  perhaps  worth  while  to  quote  one  stanza  concerning 
the  royal  feast  at  Ely  when  Werburghe  was  received  as 
probationer. 

The  tables  were  covered  with  elothes  of  Dyaper, 
Hycliflv  enlarged  with  sylver  and  with  golde; 
Tin-  cupborde  with  plate  shynynge  foyre  and  <  lere. 

Mar.shalles  tlieyr  offyecs  flllfylled  manyfohle. 

Of  myghty  wyne  plenty  bothe  newe  and  olde, 

All-inaner  kynde  of  incctes  delye.-itc 

(When  grace  uas  aayd)  to  tin  m  was  preparate. 


280  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

As  has  been  said,  the  practice  of  writing  saints'  lives 
in  English  prose  fell  into  disuse  at  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century  and  was  not  revived  until  Chaucer's 
later  years.  Except  for  two  or  three  works,  indeed,  to 
which  I  shall  immediately  refer,  all  the  later  Middle  Eng- 
lish legends  in  prose,  as  far  as  known  to  us,  can  be  ascribed 
to  the  fifteenth  century.  More  exact  dating  with  regard 
to  some  of  them  is  impossible,  for  the  present  at  least, 
though  a  division  can  be  made  between  those  produced 
during  the  first  and  during  the  second  half  of  the  century. 
John  Mirk's  Festial,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  compiled 
before  1415.  Although  some  few  of  these  fifteenth  century 
legends  have  great  interest  either  as  hagiographical  docu- 
ments or  as  examples  of  the  prose  style  that  was  forming 
itself  in  that  era,  they  were  for  the  most  part  mere  trans- 
lations, and  translations  not  very  happily  performed.  As 
a  body  of  work,  their  importance  lies  in  their  illustrating 
in  a  new  way  the  yet  unfailing  appeal  of  saints'  lives 
to  the  reading  public. 

The  most  notable  instance  of  a  prose  legend  from  the 
fourteenth  century  is  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus.  To  the 
studies  of  Professor  W.  H.  Hulme  in  this  field  we  are 
indebted  for  most  of  the  information  that  we  possess.  He 
has  shown  that  of  seven  apparently  independent  prose 
translations  of  the  ever-popular  work  two  were  made  be- 
fore the  fifteenth  century  came  in.  One  of  these  was  from 
the  pen  of  the  otherwise  celebrated  John  of  Trevisa,  the 
translator  of  Higden's  Polychronicon  and  Bartholomew  of 
Glanville's  De  Proprietatibus  Rerum ;  and  was  probably 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     281 

done  at  some  time  between  1385  and  1400.  It  was  under- 
taken at  the  request  of  Lord  Berkeley,  to  whom  Trevisa 
was  chaplain.  The  translator  of  the  other  fourteenth  cen- 
tury version  seems  to  have  been,  like  Trevisa,  from  a 
southern  county.  He  appears  to  have  been  interested 
only  in  the  portion  of  the  gospel  that  dealt  with  Joseph 
of  Arimathea,  unless,  indeed,  the  unique  manuscript  mis- 
leads us. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  work 
was  translated  again,  but  again  only  in  so  far  as  it  dealt 
with  the  story  of  Joseph.  During  the  second  half  of  the 
century,  however,  two  complete  translations  were  made 
independently,  one  of  which  (in  MS.  Harl.  1-49)  is  con- 
sidered by  Professor  Hulme  to  be  the  most  readable  of 
them  all.  It  is  possible  that  the  sixth  version  of  the  gospel, 
which  is  only  a  fragment,  was  not  made  until  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century,  at  about  the  same  time 
with  the  seventh.  This  last  translation  was  the  one  that 
found  its  way  into  print.  It  was  issued  as  early  as  1507, 
and  for  two  centuries  remained  the  popular  account  of 
the  apocryphal  story  of  Christ's  passion  and  descent  into 
Hell.  Wynkyn  de  Worde  alone  published  it  five  times 
between  1509  and  1532.  Because  of  its  long-continued 
history  and  the  consequent  influence  that  it  must  have 
had  in  forming  the  notions  of  English  writers,  it  has  great 
importance,  the  more  so  that  it  seems  to  have  been 
based  on  a  Latin  text  different  from  any  yet  discovered. 
It  purports  t<>  be  translated  from  French,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  but   from  the  French  of   Bishop  Turpin!  For  a 


282  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

solution  of  this  and  of  many  other  puzzles  we  must  await 
the  publication  by  Professor  Hulme x  of  these  Middle 
English  versions,  and  by  Professor  von  Dobschiitz  of  his 
new  edition  of  the  Evangelium  Nicodemi. 

Aside  from  the  earlier  translations  of  the  Gospel  of 
Nicodemus,  a  Life  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Vernon  MS. 
was  also  a  work  of  the  closing  years  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  It  was  made,  or  at  least  is  preserved  to  us,  in 
the  dialect  of  the  South,  and  is  a  brief  rendering  of  the 
Latin  Vita  Ad&  et  Eva  that  had  already  been  done  into 
English  verse.  It  has  traces,  moreover,  of  the  story  of  the 
cross-wood.  In  the  style  of  this  unambitious  and  un- 
adorned rendering  of  the  legend  there  is  much  to  com- 
mend. The  anonymous  writer  succeeded  in  getting  the 
same  effect  of  easy  conversational  prose  that  is  charac- 
teristic of  Wyclif  and  John  of  Trevisa.  Perhaps  it  was 
because,  like  them,  he  was  untroubled  by  rhetoric. 

The  same  praise  can  scarcely  be  given  to  The  Three 
Kings  of  Cologne,  an  abridged  translation  of  John  of 
Hildesheim's  Historia  Trium  Regum,  which  was  made 
about  1400.  In  other  respects  than  style,  however,  The 
Three  Kings  is  a  most  interesting  work.  John  of  Hildes- 
heim's book,  which  he  compiled  in  Latin  shortly  before 
1375,  represented  the  culmination  of  popular  interest  in 
the  legend  and  incorporated  a  great  mass  of  tradition. 
The  wide  success  that  it  won  was  merited  by  the  circum- 
stantial air  with  which  it  invested  a  variety  of  curious 

1  There  is  a  prose  St.  Catharine  in  MS.  Stonyhurst  College,  B.  xliii, 
referred  to  by  Professor  Hulme,  which  deserves  investigation. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     283 

and  fabulous  stories,  while  the  information  that  it  gave 
about  the  Orient,  though  far  from  accurate,  must  have 
been  captivating  indeed  to  the  age  of  Mandeville.  The 
English  translator,  who  probably  lived  in  the  South 
Midland  district,  was  able,  though  a  clumsy  writer,  to 
give  his  readers  all  the  essential  qualities  of  the  work; 
and  his  translation  had  a  corresponding  popularity.  The 
extent  to  which  the  book  was  read  is  attested  by  the 
number  of  fifteenth  century  manuscripts,  more  or  less 
shortened  or  extended,  in  which  it  is  found,  and  also  by 
the  fact  that  at  least  five  prints  were  made  of  it  between 
1499  and  1530. 

The  tendency  of  early  fifteenth  century  writers,  even 
when  they  used  English  without  any  skill  whatsoever,  to 
make  new  works  by  translating  excerpts  from  various 
Latin  ones,  is  illustrated  by  a  prose  St.  Anthony  of  Egypt. 
The  vita  was  taken  from  Evagrius;  the  invention  and 
the  first  translation  of  Anthony's  relics  were  culled  from 
Jerome's  rendering  of  a  Greek  original  by  Theophilus  of 
Constantinople;  while  the  second  translation  was  from 
still  another  book.  The  West  Midland  author  of  the 
English  prose  version  had  no  style:  his  work  is  both 
clumsy  and  dull.  Yet  it  has  its  importance,  as  several 
such  documents  do,  from  the  fact  that  one  section  of  it 
was  based,  like  a  French  translation  of  about  the  same 
period,  on  a  text  of  Jerome  not  now  accessible.  Profes- 
sor Holthausen  has  made  this  clear  with  reference  to  the 
St.  Anthony. 

The  literature  of  visions  likewise  made  its  way  into 


284  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

prose  at  this  time.    Shortly  after  1409,  as  it  appears, 
William  Staunton,  a  native  of  Durham,  wrote  a  new 
version  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory.   As  Professor  Krapp 
showed  in  his  edition  of  this  interesting  document,  it  is 
impossible  to  discover  that  the  writer  copied  the  earlier 
accounts  of  the  vision  in  any  immediate  way :  he  gave  the 
story  as  it  had  been  modified  by  the  generations  through 
which  it  had  been  orally  transmitted.   He  was,  indeed, 
a  plain  man  who  wrote  merely  to  set  down  certain  inter- 
esting facts,  regardless  of  the  stubborn  nature  of  language. 
In  the  same  fashion,   two  unpublished   Visions  of  St. 
Bridget  are  business-like  translations  from  Latin  rather 
than  works  of  literary  pretension.   Later  in  the  century 
there  was  made  a  complete  version  of  the  celebrated 
Vision  of  a  Monk  of  Eynsham,  a  black-letter  print  of  which 
was  issued  about  1 482.  Throughout  the  century  the  cur- 
rent of  vision-literature  thus  held  its  course  in  prose;  and 
it  will  be  remembered  that  visions  are  also  found  in  verse 
from  the  earlier  part  of  the  Middle  English  period. 

Two  of  the  most  interesting  prose  legends  of  the  entire 
century  were  the  two  from  the  pen  of  John  Capgrave, 
whose  poetical  work  has  already  been  considered.  These 
prose  lives  were  St.  Augustine  of  Hippo  and  St.' Gilbert  of 
Sempringham.  The  second  of  them  was  dated  1451;  and 
since  it  was  undertaken  for  Nicholas  Reysby,  "  Master 
of  the  Order  of  Sempringham,"  because  of  his  favorable 
notice  of  the  St.  Augustine,  we  may  suppose  that  the 
earlier  work  had  not  long  been  completed  before  the 
later  was  begun.  Thus  they  stand  at  the  very  middle  of 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     285 

the  century,  and  they  are  as  representative  of  the  time 
as  of  the  author.  It  must  be  said  of  them,  I  think,  that 
they  are  more  interesting  than  Capgrave's  legends  in 
verse,  probably  because  of  the  greater  simplicity  with 
which  he  handled  prose.  He  was  not  tempted  to  garnish 
it  with  fine  flowers  to  show  his  learning;  he  would  scarcely 
have  thought  of  making  it  an  exercise  in  fluent  rhetoric. 
As  a  result,  he  wrote  plainly  and  forcibly,  yet  not  without 
the  graceful  dignity  characteristic  of  the  best  fifteenth 
century  prose.  Although  he  was  sometimes  translating 
quite  literally  a  Latin  text,  the  success  of  his  style  can- 
not be  attributed  to  that  fact.  It  was  probably  due, 
rather,  to  having  his  ear  attuned  to  the  rhythms  of  good 
Latin,  which  he  transferred  intelligently  to  English 
speech. 

For  the  St.  Augustine  we  know  no  Latin  source.  Cap- 
grave,  who  speaks  of  himself  in  his  preface  as  "  a  man 
sumwhat  endewid  in  lettirur,"  says  that  he  was  asked 
by  an  unnamed  gentlewoman  to  write  the  life,  "  that  is  to 
sey,  to  translate  hir  treuly  oute  of  Latyn."  If  it  be  true 
that  a  Vita  S.  Augustini  is  among  his  lost  Latin  works, 
I  see  no  reason  for  not  supposing  that  he  may  have  been 
translating  his  own  production.  From  the  fact  that  he  did 
not  allude  to  it,  the  editor  of  the  prose  lives,  Mr.  J.  J. 
Munro,  thinks  such  a  relationship  improbable;  but  to 
me  this  is  not  weighty  evidence.  As  Mr.  Munro  points 
out,  Capgrave  seems  throughout  the  St.  Augustine  to  be 
handling  hjg  material  without  the  restrictions  by  which 
any  translator  La  bound.    In  the  case  of  the  St.  Gilbert 


286  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

he  followed  the  standard  Latin  life  rather  literally, 
adding,  however,  some  things  "  which  men  of  that  ordre 
have  told  me,  and  eke  othir  thingis  that  schul  falle  to 
my  mynde  in  the  writyng."  This  work  thus  possesses  a 
certain  independent  value,  though  a  restricted  one,  for 
the  history  of  the  establishment,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
of  the  only  monastic  order  founded  in  mediosval  England. 

At  about  the  time  when  Capgrave  was  making  his 
prose  legends,  another  East  Midland  writer  was  translat- 
ing the  life  of  Mary  Magdalene  from  the  Legenda  Aurea. 
It  will  be  recalled  that  a  complete  prose  rendering  of 
Legenda  Aurea,  afterwards  popularized  by  Caxton,  was 
made  in  1438;  but  this  isolated  life  of  the  Magdalene 
seems  to  have  been  independently  translated,  from  the 
French  form  of  the  book.  At  least,  I  see  no  reason  to 
question  Zupitza's  conclusion  that  such  was  the  case. 
Though  an  adequate  version,  it  has  not  the  charm  of 
Caxton's;  and  its  sole  interest  is  as  an  illustration  of  the 
way  in  which,  in  an  age  of  manuscripts,  the  journeyman 
work  of  literature  was  frequently  repeated  because  of 
the  difficulty  in  finding  out  what  had  been  already  done. 
The  service  of  the  printing-press  in  this  particular  is  sel- 
dom fully  realized. 

Of  somewhat  uncertain  date  are  three  independent 
translations  of  the  passion  of  St.  Dorothea,  which  illus- 
trate even  more  forcibly  the  waste  of  effort  just  men- 
tioned. By  a  detailed  study  of  their  content,  Dr.  J.  M. 
Peterson  has  shown  that  they  were  based  on  two  slightly 
different  Latin  texts,  though  their  variations  are  not  con- 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     2S7 

siderable.  Indeed,  they  differ  only  in  minor  details  from 
one  another,  from  Osbern  Bokcnam's  legend,  and  from 
the  poetical  version  that  I  have  tentatively  ascribed  to 
Capgrave.  Until  the  later  forms  of  the  Latin  legend  have 
been  submitted  to  a  searching  analysis,  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  straighten  out  the  tangle  of  these  five  transla- 
tions in  fifteenth  century  English.  In  this  connection,  the 
necessity  for  a  completer  knowledge  of  the  textual  history 
of  Lcgenda  Aurca,  and  for  a  more  inclusive  text  than  that 
found  in  Graesse's  famous  edition,  may  well  be  called  to 
the  attention  of  scholars.  Hagiological  studies  in  all  the 
vernacular  literatures  of  Europe  are  hampered  by  our 
ignorance  with  reference  to  the  great  Latin  thesaurus  of 
legend. 

A  prose  life  of  St.  Jerome  is  included  in  a  manuscript 
containing  one  of  the  prose  versions  of  St.  Dorothea,  and 
presumably  was  made  at  about  the  same  time.  The 
writer,  like  Capgrave  and  the  author  of  the  anonymous 
»S/.  Anthony  from  the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  was 
compiler  as  well  as  translator.  His  first  chapter  he  made 
up  of  extracts  from  Legenda  Aurca,  and  the  remainder  of 
his  rather  long  work  from  the  correspondence  falsely 
attributed  to  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem. 
Although  sufficiently  faithful  to  his  original  while  trans- 
lating, lie  thus  produced  what  was  virtually  a  new  work, 
omitting,  abbreviating,  arranging.  From  the  point  of 
view  i>f  fifteenth  century  literature,  at  least,  the  book  lias 
value:  it  is  readable,  and  it  shows  what  the  men  of  that 
day  cared  to  read. 


288  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Quite  possibly  the  translator  of  this  prose  St.  Jerome 
was  an  Oxonian  contemporary  of  Capgrave's,  Thomas 
Gascoigne,  a  scholar  whose  virtues  and  learning  were  not 
lessened  by  his  amusing  egotism;  a  vehement  opponent 
of  the  Wyclifites,  who  yet  on  his  own  account  attacked 
abuses  in  the  Church  unsparingly ;  and  altogether  one  of 
the  most  interesting  figures  of  his  day.  He  was  born  in 
1403  and  died  in  1458;  and,  though  he  held  at  one  time 
or  another  various  ecclesiastical  preferments,  he  passed 
nearly  all  his  working  years  at  Oriel  College.  He  wrote, 
we  know,  a  Life  of  St.  Jerome,  of  which  some  inedited 
fragments  remain  in  the  library  of  Magdalen  College,  — 
perhaps  the  same  manuscript  of  the  work  that  Leland 
once  saw  at  Oseney  Abbey.  He  also  translated  for  the 
sisters  of  the  Brigettine  house  of  Sion,  Islesworth,  a  Life 
of  St.  Bridget  of  Sweden,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  one 
printed  by  Pynson  in  1516.  The  similarity  in  language 
and  style  between  the  St.  Jerome  that  has  been  edited 
and  the  St.  Bridget  printed  by  Pynson  makes  the  theory 
that  both  of  them  were  done  by  Gascoigne  very  plausi- 
ble. The  St.  Bridget  is  certainly  one  of  the  best  pieces 
of  prose  translation  from  its  time,  and  not  to  be  regarded 
wholly  with  condescension  by  ours.  To  Gascoigne  has 
sometimes  been  attributed  also  a  Life  of  St.  Catharine, 
the  daughter  of  St.  Bridget  of  Sweden;  but  erroneously, 
as  the  inedited  manuscript  of  the  work  (Digby  172)  ex- 
pressly states.  It  cannot,  however,  have  been  made  much 
later  than  his  day.  I  regret  that  I  have  as  yet  had  no 
opportunity  to  read  this  legend. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     289 

In  another  manuscript  of  the  time,  which  once  be- 
longed to  the  Priory  of  Beauvale  in  Nottinghamshire, 
are  found  lives  of  four  women  saints,  all  of  them  cele- 
brated as  mystics.  Since  a  single  anonymous  "compilour  " 
was  responsible  for  the  form  of  all  four,  they  might  al- 
most be  classed  among  collections;  yet  their  interest  is 
individual,  and  their  sources  are  various.  The  translator 
excuses  himself  for  writing  "  umwhile  sotheren,  othere- 
while  northen,"  but  gives  no  further  information  about 
his  work  save  that  he  did  it  at  the  command  of  his  prior. 
Presumably  he  was  himself  a  monk  of  Beauvale. 

The  life  of  St.  Elizabeth  of  Spalbcck  was  faithfully  trans- 
lated, though  with  some  abridgment,  from  the  Latin  of 
Philip  of  Clairvaux.  Philip  encountered  the  saint  during 
official  visitations  of  the  Cistercian  abbey  near  her  home, 
and  investigated  her  case  with  a  seemingly  impartial 
mind.  Elizabeth  of  Spalbeck,  or  of  Erkenrode  as  she  is 
more  commonly  termed,  was  a  Belgian  ecstatic  of  the  most 
pronounced  type,  subject  to  seizures  at  the  celebration 
of  the  hours  and  of  the  mass,  and  bearing  the  stigmata. 
Like  Elizabeth  was  the  more  celebrated  Christina  Mi- 
rabilis,  a  Belgian  of  the  same  century,  whose  life  was  taken 
from  the  Vila  by  Thomas  Chantimpre,  the  Dominican. 
No  more  extraordinary  manifestations  of  mystical  fervor 
have  ever  been  set  down  than  those  reeorded  in  this  life, 
for  which  Thomas  says  he  got  the  information  from  eye- 
wit  aesses.  Christina  was  resuscitated  after  being  thought 
dead,  and  was  subsequently  tormented  in  a  hundred 
ways,  being  permit  ted  to  suffer  Purgatory  in  this  life. 


290  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

She  is  reported  to  have  cast  herself  into  hot  fires  and 
boiling  cauldrons,  for  example,  without  injury,  though 
she  suffered  frightful  agonies  at  the  time.  At  length 
her  body  became  so  "subtile"  that  she  could  hang  on 
the  smallest  twigs  of  trees.  The  life  of  St.  Mary  of 
Oignies,  freely  translated  from  the  account  of  Cardinal 
Jacques  de  Vitry,  which  was  written  in  1215,  two  years 
after  the  saint's  death,  is  a  less  extravagant  record. 
Jacques  de  Vitry  was  her  confessor  and,  as  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe,  a  conscientious  biographer.  St.  Mary 
of  Oignies  was  a  mystic  of  pronounced  type  but  not, 
like  Elizabeth  and  Christina,  open  to  the  suspicion  of 
nervous  disorder.  In  the  sketch  of  St.  Catharine  of  Siena, 
which  was  translated  from  a  letter  by  the  Carthusian 
Stephen  of  Siena,  there  is  found  an  even  nobler  picture 
of  religious  exaltation.  Something  of  the  grace  and 
humor  with  which  Stephen's  account  is  touched  was 
preserved  by  the  fifteenth  century  translator.  Of  the 
four  lives,  the  most  deserving  of  praise  is  this,  largely 
because  it  describes  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  and 
admirable  figures  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  interest  that  William  Caxton  took  in  saints'  lives 
has  already  been  shown  by  reference  to  his  editions  of 
Lydgate's  Life  of  Our  Lady,  John  Mirk's  Festial,  and  the 
Golden  Legend.  Other  manifestations  of  his  activity  were 
prose  lives  of  St.  Wenefred,  "  reduced "  by  him  about 
1485,  and  a  translation  of  Raymond  of  Capua's  life  of 
St.  Catharine  of  Siena,  which  was  issued  from  his  shop, 
but  probably  not  until  a  little  after  his  death,  under  the 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     291 

direction  of  Wynkyn  de  Worde.  Reprints  of  both  we 
owe  to  Dr.  Horstmann.  The  former  was  perhaps  based 
on  the  Latin  legend  written  by  Prior  Robert  of  Shrews- 
bury about  1140,  but  it  shows  the  freedom  with  which 
Caxton  was  accustomed  to  treat  a  text.  It  is,  indeed, 
a  good  example  of  the  style  familiar  to  readers  of  his 
translations:  easy  of  flow,  ready  of  diction,  natural  of 
construction.  Its  unaffected  simplicity,  no  less  than  the 
richness  of  the  narrative,  makes  it  one  of  the  best  exam- 
ples of  fifteenth  century  prose.  Caxton  and  Wynkyn 
de  Worde  were  less  fortunate  in  their  edition  of  St. 
Catharine  of  Siena,  which  was  a  rather  thin  and  con- 
fused translation,  scarcely  worthy  of  perpetuation.  Pos- 
sibly they  may  have  recognized  these  defects,  for  little 
pains  could  have  gone  to  the  making  of  their  very  im- 
perfect print. 

Wynkyn  de  Worde,  as  Caxton's  successor,  made  the 
issuing  of  saints'  lives -a  not  unimportant  part  of  his  work. 
To  him  we  owe  not  only  the  Xora  Legenda  Anglice  and  a 
prose  version  in  English  of  St.  Ursula  and  the  Eleven 
Thousand  Virgins,  but  The  Lyfe  of  St.  Brandan  from  the 
Golden  Legend.  Of  the  English  hagiographical  works  that 
he  printed  perhaps  the  most  interesting,  however,  was  The 
Martiloge  in  Englysshe  offer  the  I  'sr  of  flu-  chirche  of  Salis- 
bury mill  as  it  is  redde  in  Syon  With  addicyons,  which  he 
put  forth  in  I.v.m;.  This  translation  of  the  martyrology 
of  the  Brigettine  monastery  of  Sion,  [slesworth,  was  the 

work  of  Richard  Whilford,  a  brother  of  the  house,  and 

was.  made  for  the  edification  of  the  unlearned  members 


292  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

of  the  establishment  "that  dayly  dyd  rede  the  same 
martiloge  in  latyn  not  understandynge  what  they  redde." 
Not  contented,  however,  with  translating  his  original, 
Whitford  made  very  large  additions,  of  no  liturgical  au- 
thority, from  such  standard  books  as  the  Legenda  Aurea 
and  the  Catalogus  Sanctorum  by  Petrus  de  Natalibus. 
He  thus  doubled  the  size  of  the  compilation  and  made 
it  an  extensive,  though  not  authoritative,  sanctilogium, 
which  has  still  its  value  as  a  work  of  reference. 

From  the  presses  of  Pynson  and  Redman,  likewise, 
books  of  legends  were  issued,  some  of  which  we  have 
noticed.  Yet  printing  could  not  keep  saints'  lives  as  a 
literary  type  from  decay.  By  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  the  writing  of  legends  had  virtually  ceased — in 
prose  as  in  verse.  During  the  entire  Middle  English 
period  the  genre  had  been  singularly  responsive  to  the 
tendencies,  political  and  literary,  that  marked  the  cen- 
turies; and  it  was  responsive  to  the  end.  The  approach  of 
the  Reformation  must  have  been  felt  as  the  sixteenth 
century  began.  One  of  the  portents,  indeed,  was  this 
somewhat  sudden  cessation  in  the  activities  of  legend- 
writers.  The  type  had  flourished  with  the  Middle  Ages. 
With  the  close  of  the  era  it  fell  into  decay;  or,  to  speak 
with  greater  accuracy,  the  springs  of  it  were  dried  up. 
The  faith  of  believers  was  not  quenched,  but  the  majority 
of  them  in  England  were  never  again  to  find  help  and 
inspiration  in  the  records  of  the  martyrs  and  confessors 
of  the  past.  For  the  Protestant  majority  that  source  of 
profit  ceased  to  exist  except  as  a  by -word  and  a  scorn. 


THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION     293 

And  with  the  change  of  religious  attitude  towards  the 
saints,  saintly  biography  as  a  major  type  perished. 
Henceforward,  in  English  literature,  it  was  destined  to 
be  a  sporadic  and,  for  the  most  part,  a  feeble  growth, 
vitalized  among  Protestants  only  by  romantic  interest 
or  by  scholarly  enthusiasm,  while  among  Catholics  it 
shared  the  obscurity  to  which  they  were  doomed  for  more 
than  two  centuries  and  a  half. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SAINTS'  LIVES  IN  DRAMA 

N  order  to  review  the  part  taken  by  saints' 
lives  in  English  drama,  it  is  necessary  for  us 
to  retrace  some  of  our  steps  in  the  mediaeval 
period;  indeed,  so  fragmentary  are  our  rec- 
ords of  such  representations  that  isolated  treatment  of 
them  is  inevitable.  Almost  without  exception  the  saints' 
plays  of  the  Middle  Ages,  strictly  speaking,  have  per- 
ished. It  is  only  by  gathering  together  scattered  refer- 
ences to  their  performance  that  one  can  form  even  an 
approximately  accurate  judgment  as  to  their  qualities 
and  their  influence.  Thus  they  cannot  well  be  treated 
along  with  other  manifestations  of  the  type;  they  must 
be  separately  considered. 

The  extent  to  which  they  were  written  and  performed 
is  usually  underestimated,  partly  because  they  have  been 
lost  and  partly  because  several  great  cycles  of  plays  based 
on  biblical  narrative  have  survived.  Upon  these  cycles 
and  upon  the  liturgical  origins  of  the  drama  the  atten- 
tion of  scholars  has,  quite  naturally  and  properly,  been 
centred,  because  through  them  the  development  of  the 
popular  drama  can  be  most  conveniently  traced.  It  is 
unfortunate,  however,  that  the  impression  should  be 
prevalent,  as  I  fear  is  the  case,  that  saints'  lives  were  not 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN  DRAMA  295 

very  often  dramatized  during  the  period  when  miracle 
plays  tlourished.  The  evidence  is,  we  shall  see,  that 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  centuries  such  subjects 
were  frequently  chosen  for  popular  representation.  De- 
veloping from  the  ritual  of  the  Church  as  it  did,  the  cyclic 
drama  was  in  the  nature  of  things  chiefly  composed  of 
biblical  material;  but  this  did  not  satisfy  the  dramatic 
appetite  of  the  public,  which  found  other  subjects  to  its 
liking  in  the  ever  popular  lives  of  saints.  Thus  during 
the  centuries  when  legends  were  most  cultivated  for  reci- 
tation and  reading,  they  were  most  often  turned  to  ac- 
count as  material  for  drama.  If  it  seems  strange  that  we 
have  no  more  records  of  these  plays  than  we  possess, 
and  almost  no  texts,  let  the  devastating  vandalism  of 
the  Reformation  not  be  forgotten:  whatever  pertained 
to  the  saints  was  peculiarly  liable  to  destruction  in  the 
general  pillage  that  wrecked  so  many  libraries. 

It  is  certainly  noteworthy  that  the  curliest  reference  to 
a  play  in  England  should  be  the  St.  CatJiarinc  that  Geof- 
frey, a  Norman  clerk,  prepared  for  the  school  of  St.  Albans. 
Matthew  Paris  records  that  Geoffrey  borrowed  certain 
(opes  for  the  performance,  which  were  burned  with  his 
house  at  Dunstable,  Bedfordshire.  This  must  have  been 
in  the  earlier  years  of  the  twelfth  century,  since  Geoffrey 
ine  a  monk  on  account  of  his  misfortune,  and  was 
made  abbol  of  St .  Albans  in  1 1 1!).  This  school  play  must, 
of  course,  have  been  in  Latin,  but  its  existence  shows 
plainly  that  in  England,  as  in  France,  dramas  based  on 
the  lives  of  saints  were  customary  from  a  very  early  date. 


296  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

What  the  plays  were  like,  that  William  Fitzstephen 
alluded  to  in  the  preface  to  his  Vita  of  St.  Thomas 
Becket,  we  do  not  know :  merely  that  London  in  his  time 
had  "representations  of  miracles  which  holy  confessors 
have  done,  or  representations  of  the  passions  in  which 
the  constancy  of  martyrs  has  shone  forth."  Whether  or 
not  they  were  in  Latin,  which  seems  unlikely  since  they 
were  for  popular  representation,  the  record  makes  clearer 
the  fact  that  saints'  plays  were  not  unknown  in  England 
before  the  rise  of  the  dramatic  cycles.  William  Fitzste- 
phen died  at  some  time  between  1170  and  1182. 

There  is  no  further  record  of  dramatic  performances 
based  on  saints'  lives,  as  far  as  I  know,  until  the  four- 
teenth century.  This,  however,  is  by  no  means  satis- 
factory evidence  that  such  plays  were  not  presented. 
Information  as  to  the  drama  in  thirteenth  century  Eng- 
land is  almost  wholly  lacking.  Not  until  the  proces- 
sional cycles  came  into  existence,  soon  after  the  estab- 
lishment, in  1311,  of  the  feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  does 
the  record  become  in  any  respect  adequate.  Indeed, 
though  we  can  justly  refer  the  authorship  of  the  sur- 
viving texts  to  the  fourteenth  century,  most  of  the  refer- 
ences to  performances  that  have  come  to  light  are  from 
the  fifteenth  or  the  early  sixteenth  century.  In  these 
circumstances  one  must  take  for  granted  that  saints' 
plays,  like  other  plays,  developed  during  a  period  con- 
cerning which  we  have  very  little  dramatic  knowledge. 
We  must  consider  them  as  they  were  after  secularization 
was  well-nigh  complete  and  drama  had  become,  for  the 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN  DRAMA  297 

most  part,  the  cherished  plaything  of  guilds  and  town 
councils. 

Altogether,  the  lives  of  about  twenty-five  saints  are 
known  to  have  been  dramatized  before  the  Reformation, 
and  some  of  them  several  times  over.  Since  we  have  re- 
maining to  us  from  this  period,  aside  from  the  cyclic 
miracles  and  scattering  works  of  similar  content,  only 
three  dramas  of  the  legendary  type,  we  can  get  our  surest 
knowledge  of  the  general  scope  of  such  plays  from  a 
study  of  subjects  and  of  representations.  Let  us  first  see 
what  can  be  learned  from  the  list  of  non-existent  saints' 
plays. 

This  list,  which  can  be  made  up  only  through  the 
somewhat  casual  references  of  account-books  and  muni- 
cipal or  monastic  records,  is  necessarily  very  far  from 
complete.  The  extant  allusions  to  such  matters  are  so 
scattered  as  to  make  an  exhaustive  search  for  them  al- 
most impossible;  and  the  loss  of  documents  by  various 
means  has  been  so  great  that  it  is  difficult,  on  the  basis 
of  survivals,  to  estimate  the  extent  to  which  saints'  plays 
may  have  been  cultivated.  Yet  there  is  safety  in  sup- 
posing that  the  records  we  possess  represent  in  a  general 
way  the  subjects  chosen  for  such  dramas,  and  to  a  some- 
what less  degree  their  comparative  popularity. 

Of  the  saints'  legends  so  treated  nearly  all  were  stock 
subjects  of  narrative  in  verse  and  prose.  Naturally 
enough,  the  authors  of  such  representations  took  stories 

about  which  some  knowledge  on  t  he  part  of  t  he  audiences 
could  be  presupposed.    Thus  the  names  encountered  in 


298  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  records  are  familiar  ones,  and  are  frequently  re- 
peated. Mediaeval  drama,  though  its  primary  purpose 
may  have  been  instruction,  could  not  well  present  ideas 
or  incidents  that  would  be  hard  for  a  jostling  crew  of 
citizens  and  rustics  to  grasp.  St.  George,  St.  Catharine, 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  St.  Margaret,  St.  Lawrence 
—  such  names  as  these  show  the  kind  of  material  de- 
manded by  the  conditions.  Of  them  all,  St.  George  * 
seems  to  have  been  the  most  popular,  at  least  after  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Of  the  eight  towns 
where  we  know  that  his  legend  was  dramatically  pre- 
sented, only  Norwich  seems  to  have  celebrated  him 
earlier  than  1450;  at  Norwich  a  "riding"  on  St.  George's 
Day,  presumably  with  a  play  about  the  saint,  was  held 
from  1408  on.  This  increasing  vogue  as  a  subject  for  dra- 
matic spectacles  accompanied,  of  course,  the  strength- 
ening of  St.  George's  hold  on  the  popular  mind  as  the 
Patron  of  England.  Of  all  legends,  moreover,  his  was 
least  affected  by  the  Reformation,  for  the  ideal  he  em- 
bodied was  deeply  imbedded  in  national  life;  whence 
it  came  about  that  he  survived  as  the  hero  of  many 
folk-plays  sufficiently  removed  in  spirit  and  content 
from  the  mediseval  legend. 

With  regard  to  other  saints,  the  information  obtain- 
able does  not  show  any  marked  preponderance  in  popu- 
larity of  one  over  another.  The  striking  thing  that 
emerges  from  a  scrutiny  of  the  list  is  the  fact  that  we  know 
of  only  three  cases  in  which  native  saints  became  the  sub- 
jects of  mediaeval  plays.    It  is  of  record  that  St.  Bride 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN  DRAMA  299 

(Bridget)  was  so  honored  in  1442  and  again  in  1505-6, 
at  Aberdeen;  that  in  15-23  a  play  of  St.  Swithin  was 
"acted  in  the  Church"  at  Braintree,  Essex;  and  that  in- 
terludes of  St.  Thomas  Becket  were  played  at  King's 
Lynn  and  Norwich,  in  Norfolk  —  in  the  former  place  as 
early  as  1385.  At  Canterbury,  rather  curiously,  the  only 
mention  of  St.  Thomas  in  connection  with  the  drama 
concerns  the  pageant,  probably  a  dumb-show,  which 
was  held  on  his  day  from  1504-5  until  "far  on  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth."  We  ought  not  to  suppose,  I 
feel  sure,  that  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Thomas  was  not 
elsewhere  presented,  nor  that  the  legends  of  many  other 
native  saints  were  not  taken  for  dramatic  themes.  It 
does  appear  fairly  certain,  however,  that  the  great 
martyrs  and  confessors  of  the  Church  at  large  were  more 
commonly  the  subjects  of  plays  than  the  heroes  of  the 
Church  in  England.  The  same  tendency  that  has  been 
noted  in  connection  with  the  writing  of  mediaeval  leg- 
endaries and  individual  legends  would  thus  have  been 
operative  in  the  making  of  popular  dramas. 

The  lost  saints'  plays,  which  we  are  considering,  must 
in  the  nature  of  things  have  been  very  various  in  quality 
and  in  tendency.  Most  of  them  were  produced  in  towns 
of  some  size  by  one  or  another  of  the  guilds,  to  which 
the  development  of  the  drama  owed  so  much;  but  for 
others  churches,  monastic  establishments,  or  colleges  were 
responsible.  Very  different  from  the  ruder  town  plays 
musl  liav<-  been  the  mumming  at  Windsor  in  1429-30, 
into  which  Lvdgate  introduced  St.  Clotilda,  or  the  "play 


300  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

of  Placidas,  alias  St.  Eustace"  at  Braintree,  Essex,  in 
1534,  which  may  have  been  written  by  Nicholas  Udall, 
the  author  of  the  first  "regular"  comedy  in  English. 
Learned  also,  and  learned  in  the  older  manner,  must 
have  been  the  Protestant  John  Bale's  lost  comedy,  De 
Imposturis  Thomce  Beckett,  mentioned  by  him  among 
his  English  plays,  most  of  which  were  based  on  biblical 
narratives.  Whether  or  not  this  particular  drama  was 
ever  performed,  as  some  of  his  pieces  were,  we  are  not  in- 
formed. Both  Udall's  and  Bale's  works  belong,  of  course, 
rather  to  the  preparatory  period  of  Tudor  drama  than 
to  the  mediaeval  stage;  but  when  Udall  was  vicar  of 
Braintree,  the  Reformation  was  only  just  beginning,  and 
plays  were  still  sometimes  given  in  the  churches.  Long 
before  his  day,  however,  the  drama  had  become  pre- 
vailingly the  concern  of  the  secular  authorities,  and  the 
grosser  elements  of  comedy  had  been  introduced  into 
sacred  themes.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the 
generality  of  saints'  plays  differed  markedly  in  character 
from  the  biblical  plays  from  which  we  gain  most  of  our 
first-hand  knowledge  of  the  developed  mediaeval  drama 
in  England. 

As  has  been  said,  it  was  the  cyclic  drama  that  best 
withstood  the  ravages  of  the  Reformation.  Largely  by 
chance,  no  doubt,  but  by  reason  also  of  their  wider  dis- 
semination and  more  enduring  popularity  these  plays 
have  become  our  chief  mediaeval  texts;  nor  could  the 
reformers  have  felt  the  same  passion  to  destroy  plays 
based  on  the  Bible  that  they  must  have  felt  with  reference 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN   DRAMA  301 

to  the  legendary  drama.  Four  cycles  of  them  have  sur- 
vived, indeed,  with  reasonable  completeness:  the  four 
famous  cycles  concerning  which  every  text-book  of  Eng- 
lish literature  informs  its  readers.  Fragments  of  four 
other  cycles  have  come  down  to  us,  by  which  to  check 
the  general  conclusions  drawn  from  the  York,  Chester, 
Towneley  or  "Wakefield,  and  Hegge  plays  (the  last  equally 
well  known  as  the  Ludus  Coventricc) .  The  scope  of  several 
other  cycles  we  also  know  from  the  records  of  their  per- 
formance. Into  the  vexing  questions  of  the  origin  and 
dates  of  the  individual  cycles  it  is  not  necessary  for  us 
to  enter,  since  these  matters  in  no  way  affect  the  prob- 
lems at  hand.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  earliest  of 
them  must  have  been  compiled  towards  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century  and  that,  as  we  have  them,  they 
are  undoubtedly  of  composite  authorship.  All  of  them,  it 
must  be  remembered,  are  in  verse  —  often  in  verse  of 
intricate  design. 

These  so-called  miracle  plays  were  based,  of  course,  on 
biblical  narrative;  as  cycles  they  spanned  sacred  history, 
sometimes  from  the  creation  to  the  day  of  judgment. 
From  their  inclusiveness  it  was  inevitable  that  they 
should  embody  material  drawn  from  apocryphal  writ- 
ings. In  so  far  as  they  did  so,  they  drew  upon  sources 
intimately  connected  with  hagiographical  literature  and 
used  certain  stories  with  which  we  have  dealt  in  earlier 
chapters.   Yet.  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it.  was  almost  wholly  in 

the  New  Testamenl  scries  thai  they  were  dependent  on 

apocrypha]  texts.  Only  in  the  Chester  Plays  have  I  noted 


302  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

anything  that  seems  to  indicate  a  knowledge  of  the  leg- 
ends dealing  with  Old  Testament  personages;  and  the 
possible  French  influence  on  the  Chester  cycle  should 
make  one  wary  of  basing  general  conclusions  upon  its 
phenomena.  In  passing,  it  may  be  well  to  say  that  the 
Cornish  cycles  contain  the  legend  of  Adam's  death  and 
the  Cross-wood,  which  shows  the  possibility  that  some  of 
the  lost  English  series  used  similar  material.  With  regard 
to  the  New  Testament,  however,  the  authors  of  all  the 
extant  plays  drew  on  apocryphal  stories  with  free  hand. 
In  the  York  Plays,  for  example,  traces  have  been  found  of 
the  Pseudo-Matthew,  the  Proto-Gospel  of  Si.  James,  and 
two  versions  of  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  as  well  as  mate- 
rial concerning  the  birth  and  death  of  the  Virgin  and  an 
allusion  to  the  Cross  legend.  The  Uegge  Plays  were  based 
on  the  apocryphal  gospels  to  an  even  greater  extent,  while 
the  borrowings  of  the  Towneley  and  Chester  cycles  were 
considerable.  All  this  was  perfectly  natural;  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  English  populace,  at  least,  there  was  no 
distinction  in  credibility  between  the  canonical  books  and 
the  tissue  of  legend  with  which  they  had  been  enlarged. 
Indeed,  it  is  altogether  certain  that  from  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  the  cyclic  drama  was  a  most  powerful 
agency  for  the  wider  dissemination  of  such  fabulous 
stories. 

With  saints'  lives  in  the  narrower  and  stricter  sense  the 
cycles  had  little  to  do,  though  the  Veronica  scene  in  the 
Uegge  Plays  and  the  similar  allusion  in  the  York  cycle 
show  how  easily  such  material  could  find  a  place.    Of  the 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN  DRAMA  303 

same  character  is  the  incident  of  the  healing  of  Longinus, 
which  was  incorporated  in  the  crucifixion  scenes  of  the 
four  great  cycles.  To  draw  any  hard  and  fast  lines  would 
have  been  impossible,  and  would  have  occurred  to  no  one. 
Whether  or  no  saints'  plays,  by  themselves,  were  ever 
performed  in  series,  like  the  biblical  cycles,  is  uncertain. 
On  this  account  it  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  not  more 
information  about  the  Corpus  Christi  celebration  at 
Aberdeen,  Scotland,  from  1510  until  1556  or  later.  In 
1531  there  was  an  order  that  the  crafts  furnish  their  pa- 
geants as  usual,  and  a  list  was  subjoined.  The  fleshers 
furnished  St.  "Bestian"  (presumably  Sebastian)  and  his 
tormentors,  the  barbers  St.  LawTence  and  his  tormentors, 
the  cordwainers  St.  Martin,  the  tailors  the  Coronation  of 
Our  Lady,  the  litsters  St.  Nicholas,  the  websters  and 
others  the  Resurrection,  and  the  smiths  "the  Bearmen  of 
the  Cross."  If  this  notice  refers  to  anything  more  than  a 
dumb-show,  something  very  like  a  cycle  of  saints'  plays 
must  have  been  performed,  though  a  cycle  of  which  the 
various  parts  would  not  have  been  schematically  con- 
nected. No  texts  are  preserved,  however,  and  the  mean- 
ing of  the  notices  is  far  from  clear.  Elsewhere,  so  far  as  I 
know,  there  is  no  suggestion  that  saints'  plays  may  have 
be«-n  joined  together  as  wen-  the  biblical  dramas.  Noth- 
ing, bowever,  would  have  been  more  natural.    In  the  ease 

of  Aberdeen,  the  fad  that  tlie  procession  was  continued 

until  SO  late  as  the  BeCOnd  half  of  the  sixteenth  century 

makes  one  a  little  skeptical  as  to  whether  it  was  actually 
accompanied  by  plays,  yet  the  citizens  might  possibly 


304  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

have  clung  to  their  established  drama  past  the  Reforma- 
tion. 

One  curious  survival  from  the  second  half  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  is  the ..Croxton  Play  of  the  Sacrament,  which 
is  unique  in  being  the  only  drama  known  to  us,  either  by 
text  or  by  contemporary  notice,  that  was  based  on  an 
exemplum.  It  thus  merits  the  name  of  miracle  play  more 
exactly  than  do  the  biblical  cycles,  to  which  ancient  usage 
has  assigned  the  term.  The  piece  comes  from  the  East 
Midlands,  though  at  which  of  the  five  Croxtons  in  that 
region  it  was  performed  there  is  no  sure  means  of  knowing. 
Such  plays  were  by  no  means  uncommon  on  the  Conti- 
nent. Indeed,  the  theme  of  the  Croxton  play  itself  —  the 
outrage  done  upon  the  consecrated  host  by  a  Jew  —  was 
used  by  dramatists  of  Italy,  France,  and  the  Netherlands. 
The  English  play  is  chiefly  peculiar  in  its  denoument:  the 
Jew  and  his  accomplices  are  converted  by  the  miracle, 
absolved,  and  baptized.  Undoubtedly  the  story  upon 
which  the  play  was  based  was  disseminated  from  France, 
where  the  legend  was  known  as  early  as  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  but  the  scene  of  the  English  ver- 
sion was  laid  in  Spain.  This  means,  I  take  it,  that  the 
author  formed  his  drama  on  a  stock  exemplum,  a  theory 
confirmed  by  the  Latin  lines  with  which  it  is  interlarded. 
Such  anecdotes,  it  may  be  remarked,  were  not  infre- 
quently given  a  Spanish  setting  at  that  period.  The  play 
is  a  crude  production  that  could  have  been  pleasing  only 
to  a  very  unsophisticated  audience.  It  has  an  abundance 
of  grotesque  humor,  but  lacks  the  simple  dignity  that 


SAINTS'  LIVES  IN  DRAMA  305 

makes  so  much  early  drama  appealing  to  our  modern 
taste.  Its  importance  to  our  present  investigation  is 
merely  that  it  illustrates  what  many  saints'  plays  must 
have  been  like. 

More  learned  and  worshipful  are  The  Conversion  of  St. 
Paul  and  Mary  Magdalene,  which  are  found  in  the  early 
sixteenth  century  Digby  MS.  133,  but  which  were  un- 
doubtedly written  in  the  Midlands  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  previous  century.  Both  of  them  have  some  merit, 
though  they  were  perhaps  less  well  adapted  than  plays  of 
the  Croxton  type  to  please  the  coarser  groundlings  of  the 
day.  In  quality  of  verse  they  smack  strongly  of  the  pious 
school  of  legend-writers,  of  which  Lydgate  was  the  mas- 
ter. Their  authors  must  have  been  men  of  the  stamp  of 
Osbern  Bokenam,  the  Austin  friar  of  Suffolk. 

The  Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  save  for  a  scene  in  which 
the  devils  Belial  and  Mercury  lament  the  loss  of  their 
"darling"  Saul,  is  wholly  based  on  the  biblical  narrative. 
Though  its  materials  are  thus  not  apocryphal,  it  has  all 
the  ear-marks  of  legend  in  its  treatment.  It  was  played  in 
three  stations,  but  would  have  required  no  great  elabora- 
tion and  may  well  have  l>een  designed,  according  to  the 
conjecture  of  Mr.  Chambers  in  The  Mediceval  Stage,  for 
performance  in  a  small  village.  Throughout,  the  Poeta 
himself   served    as    master   of   ceremonies,    usefully    but 

apologetically.  One  would  like  to  think  thai  this  simple 

;nnl  dignified  play  was  typical  of  saints'  plays  in  general; 
but   it   i^  to  Ix-  feared  that   more  boisterous  drama  would 

have  been  better  loved. 


306  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

Far  more  ambitious  than  The  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  is 
Mary  Magdalene.  It  is  more  than  two  thousand  lines  in 
length,  and  is  divisible  into  fifty-two  scenes.  Evidently 
it  was  devised  for  a  somewhat  elaborate  setting,  and  it 
could  hardly  have  been  played  except  by  a  company  with 
considerable  resources.  More  than  sixty  characters,  not 
to  mention  attendants  and  "the  pepul,"  were  necessary  to 
its  performance,  while  such  stage-directions  as  "Here  xall 
en  tyre  a  shyp  with  a  mery  song"  indicate  the  extent  to 
which  the  author  called  for  ingenious  and  expensive  me- 
chanical devices.  The  action  covers  the  entire  legendary 
history  of  Mary  Magdalene,  as  it  was  developed  in  the 
West,  from  the  death  of  her  father  to  her  apostolate  in 
France  and  her  own  death  there.  Since  the  story  is  treated 
throughout  with  considerable  amplitude,  it  is  not  ex- 
traordinary that  the  play  is  long.  Yet  the  introduction  of 
several  allegorical  figures  like  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins  and 
the  Kings  of  the  Flesh  and  of  the  World,  which  serves 
to  connect  the  drama  with  the  moralities  of  the  time, 
does  not  clog  its  movement.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
there  is  little  padding,  and  almost  no  interruption  of 
the  action  save  by  the  devils  and  angels  who  play  the 
part  of  chorus.  The  scenes  have  robust  vigor  and  con- 
siderable richness  of  dramatic  action,  yet  they  do  not  de- 
scend into  broad  farce  for  the  sake  of  contrast.  Mary's 
downfall,  for  example,  is  managed  with  a  delicacy  that 
shows  not  a  little  imaginative  insight  on  the  part  of  the 
unknown  dramatist.  There  is  much  rant  in  the  play,  to 
be  sure,  but  there  are  few  lapses  into  dull  debate  or  un- 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN  DRAMA  307 

motivated  action.  The  simplicity  of  the  technique  does 
not  spoil  the  effect  desired;  but  the  appeal  made  by  the 
drama  is  not  wholly  through  its  simplicity.  According  to 
its  kind,  it  has  genuine  dramatic  worth.  Despite  its 
length,  it  is  not  tedious. 

Less  praise  can  be  given  the  only  saint's  play  that  has 
survived  from  the  period  between  the  Reformation  and 
the  very  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  is  likewise  a 
dramatization  of  the  Magdalene's  story.  The  Life  and 
lit pent  ounce  of  Mary  Magdalene,  by  Lewis  Wager,  was 
first  printed  in  15GG,  though  probably  written  during  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.  As  Professor  Carpenter  has  pointed 
out  in  the  introduction  to  his  edition,  "the  play  is  essen- 
tially a  morality-play."  Like  most  of  the  morals,  it  was 
composed  from  the  Protestant  point  of  view;  and  its  chief 
aim  was  to  drive  home  the  lesson  of  repentance  and  of 
salvation  by  faith.  Somewhat  curiously.  Wager  chose  to 
weave  his  allegory  about  a  figure  who  had  been  a  favorite 
of  Cat  holic  legend.  Accordingly,  he  produced  a  work  that 
stands,  in  the  matter  of  content,  between  the  older  mir- 
acle plays  and  other  moralities.  He  was  very  far,  how- 
ever, from  following  the  legend  of  Mary  that  the  later 
Middle  Ages  had  developed.  Kxeept  in  one  or  two  minor 
particulars  he  based  his  scenes  on  the  story: 

Written  in  the  .vii.  of  Luke  with  wonles  playne. 
In  manner  ami  technique  his  play  is  wholly  a  morality, 

and  ncii  Ikt  better  nor  worse  than  most  works  of  its  class. 
The  stilted  language  ;md  the  awkward  versification  de- 
tracl  from  its  effectiveness  almost  as  much  a^  does  the 


308  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

overwrought  allegory.  What  Wager  attempted  could 
have  been  accomplished  successfully  only  by  a  writer  of 
genuine  talent;  and  Wager,  it  is  to  be  feared,  was  merely  a 
versifying  parson. 

The  loss  of  plays  by  Nicholas  Udall  and  John  Bale  has 
already  been  noted.  Did  they  survive,  and  did  we  still 
have  The  Commody  of  the  moste  vertuous  and  godlye  Su- 
sanna by  Thomas  Garter  (licensed  in  1568-9),  we  should 
be  in  a  better  position  than  we  are  at  present  to  judge  the 
use  made  of  legendary  themes  by  the  earlier  Protestants. 
With  the  mediaeval  drama,  however,  had  perished  at  once 
the  inspiration  and  the  excuse  for  saints'  plays.  The  rec- 
ord of  them  even  in  pre-Reformation  days  has  been  im- 
perfectly preserved,  as  the  slightness  of  the  foregoing 
sketch  will  indicate,  while  in  the  development  of  the 
Elizabethan  drama,  legends  of  the  saints  could  have,  of 
course,  no  considerable  part.  Ever  since  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII,  the  appearance  of  such  themes  on  the  Eng- 
lish stage  has  been  purely  sporadic  and  fortuitous.  Brief 
mention  of  them  will  suffice. 

During  the  later  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  only  one 
saint's  play  is  known  to  have  been  presented.  In  1599 
Sir  Placidas,  presumably  a  dramatic  rendering  of  the  ever 
popular  Eustace  legend,  by  Henry  Chettle,  was  produced 
in  London.  Henslowe  records  the  fact,  but  the  play  has 
perished.  We  can  only  hazard  the  surmise  that,  like 
Partridge's  poetical  narrative  of  1566,  which  dealt  inno- 
cently with  the  same  theme,  Chettle's  drama  was  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  give  no  shock  to  a  Protestant  audience. 


SAINTS'   LIVES  IN  DRAMA  309 

In  the  time  of  James  I,  again,  a  solitary  play,  The  Vir- 
gin Martyr  by  Massinger,  is  the  only  representative  of 
saints'  legends  in  the  drama.  This  curious  tragedy,  which 
was  perhaps  a  revision  of  an  earlier  play  by  Dekker,  was 
licensed  in  1620and  printed  in  1622.  It  is  a  dramatization 
of  the  Dorothea  legend,  but  with  an  admixture  of  elements 
from  the  vulgate  lives  of  St.  Agnes  and  St.  Juliana.  Un- 
even in  texture,  it  has  scenes  of  considerable  power,  yet  as 
a  whole  is  theatrical  and  tasteless.  To  have  adapted  suc- 
cessfully a  saint's  legend  to  the  dramatic  fashions  of  that 
day  would  have  been  a  difficult  feat ;  and  the  attempt  was 
doomed  to  failure  when  undertaken  by  a  writer  of  Mas- 
singer's  narrow  talent.  The  scenes  of  comedy,  whether 
composed  by  himself  or  by  Dekker,  destroy  the  poor 
affectation  of  dignity  that  is  supported  almost  wholly  by 
rhetoric,  while  the  catastrophe  is  melodramatic  rather 
than  tragic.  The  device  of  introducing  a  guardian  angel  in 
the  disguise  of  Dorothea's  servant  illustrates  the  futile 
extravagance  of  the  piece.  Charles  Lamb  praised  the 
Bcenes  between  this  Angelo  and  the  saint,  but  not  very 
wisely,  I  think.  From  the  point  of  view  of  legend,  at  least, 
they  deserve  little  commendation.  Perhaps,  however, 
only  a  mawkish  transformation  like  Massinger's  could 
have  found  a  place  on  the  seventeenth  century  stage.  It 
is  to  be  noted  that  The  Virgin  Martyr  was  held  in  so  much 
esteem  thai  it  was  revived  after  the  Restoration. 

At  jusi  uIklI  date  a  drama  entitled  St.  George  for  Eng- 
land, by  Went  worth  Smith,  was  written,  we  do  not  know, 

bul  the  author's  other  works  fall  between  1601  and  1623. 


310  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

A  copy  of  St.  George  for  England  was  among  the  plays  de- 
stroyed by  Warburton's  infamous  cook.  Very  probably  it 
suggested  the  title  for  James  Shirley's  St.  Patrick  for  Ire- 
land, which  was  produced  in  1639-40.  Shirley  was  at  that 
time  in  Ireland,  writing  for  the  Dublin  stage.  His  play, 
though  it  does  not  lack  the  romantic  vigor  characteristic 
of  the  author,  is  even  more  absurd-  than  The  Virgin  Mar- 
tyr from  the  point  of  view  of  hagiography.  Quite  apart 
from  that,  moreover,  dramatic  propriety  is  grossly  vio- 
lated by  many  of  the  songs  that  are  introduced,  as  well  as 
by  such  scenes  as  the  last,  in  which  St.  Patrick  banishes 
the  serpents  from  the  island.  Shirley's  Catholicism  did  not 
prevent  him  from  treating  his  theme  in  the  stereotyped 
manner  of  tragi-comedy  then  in  vogue.  We  cannot  regret 
that  he  found  no  encouragement,  as  was  apparently  the 
case,  to  write  the  second  part  announced  in  the  prologue. 
Another  play  by  Shirley  with  a  saint  as  its  hero,  The 
Tragedy  of  St.  Albans,  was  entered  on  the  Stationers' 
Register  in  1639,  but  it  has  disappeared.^^" 

Meanwhile,  in  1638,  had  been  printed  'The  Seven  Cham- 
pions of  Christendome  by  John  Kirke,  which  had  been 
previously  "acted  at  the  Cocke-pit,  and  at  the  Red-Bull 
in  St.  John's  Streete,  with  a  generall  liking."  It  is  a  drama- 
tization of  Richard  Johnson's  romance,  The  Seven  Cham- 
pions of  Christendom,  which  appeared  in  1596.  Like  its 
source,  it  seems  to  have  enjoyed  a  considerable  popularity, 
but  presumably  only  because  St.  George  was  its  hero. 
The  material  was  not  well  suited  to  dramatic  presenta- 
tion, nor  was  John  Kirke  a  playwright  of  ability. 


SAINTS'  LIVES  IN  DRAMA  311 

No  other  plays  from  the  period  prior  to  the  closing  of 
the  theatres  have  come  to  my  notice.  The  meagreness 
of  the  record  would  be  more  regrettable  if  the  dramatists 
of  the  age  could  by  any  possibility  have  used  saints'  lives 
yith  good  effect.  They  were,  in  fact,  less  well  fitted  to  treat 
such  themes  than  was  Corneille,  whose  Polycucte  (1G-13) 
was  translated,  during  the  ascendancy  of  Cromwell,  by 
Sir  "William  Lower  as  Polyeuctes,  or  The  Martyr  (1655). 

After  the  Restoration,  the  condition  neither  of  the  stage 
nor  of  public  taste  was  such  as  to  foster  the  proper  drama- 
tization of  legends.  Dryden's  Tyrannic  Love,  or  The  Royal 
Martyr  stands,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  quite  alone.  Catharine 
of  Alexandria  is  the  heroine.  The  play  is  one  of  Dryden's 
series  of  "heroic  dramas"  and  was  produced  in  1GG8  or 
1669.  In  method  it  does  not  differ  greatly  from  the  more 
famous  Conquest  of  Granada:  the  action  is  theatrically 
1  n  »ld,  and  the  characters  are  drawn,  as  the  author  flattered 
himself,  "on  a  grand  scale."  It  is  to  be  feared,  however, 
that  the  legend  adapted  itself  almost  too  easily  to  the 
absurd  exaggerations  and  the  conventional  mannerisms  of 
Restoration  tragedy.  All  the  worst  features  of  the  story 
appear  strikingly  in  the  play,  while  the  beauty  underlying 
the  verbiage  of  most  accounts  of  the  saint  is  completely 
losl  to  sight.  Even  in  his  later  Catholic  years,  Dryden 
would  have  been  ill  fitted  to  treat  the  life  of  a  saint  with 
sympathetic  insight;  in  the  fourth  decade  of  his  life  he 
was  capable  of  nothing  but  melodramatic  presentation 
of  externals. 

Here  the  matter  rests.   Since  Dryden's  day  no  impor- 


312  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

tant  attempt  has  been  made  to  picture  saints'  lives  on  the 
English  stage.  Tennyson's  Becket  (1885),  though  a  nota- 
ble tragedy,  is  scarcely  of  a  sort  to  renew  the  succession: 
it  is  an  historical  drama  the  hero  of  which  happens  to  be 
canonized,  but  it  is  not  a  saint's  play. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE 

jj|Y  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  writing  of  saints'  legends  in  England 
had  virtually  ceased.  The  influences  that 
were  to  bring  about  the  Reformation,  with 
its  consequent  hatred  and  fear  of  Catholic  tradition,  as 
well  as  of  Catholic  dogma,  had  already  become  actively 
operative,  though  they  were  unrecognized.  Without  those 
deeper  causes,  the  mingled  rapacity  and  patriotism  of 
Henry  VIII  could  scarcely  have  succeeded  in  changing 
the  bases  of  religion  and  of  the  English  social  system  as 
they  did.  He  would  not  have  found  ministers  like  Wolsey 
and  Cromwell  to  do  his  bidding  and  to  share  his  spoils,  nor 
would  he  have  been  able  to  sway  the  mind  of  his  people 
as  he  wished.  To  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  compli- 
cated influences  that  brought  about  the  Reformation 
would  not  here  be  in  place.  It  is  necessary  merely  to  point 
out,  as  a  symptom  of  the  times,  that  legend-writing  fell 
into  abeyance  several  decades  before  the  break  with 
Rome,  and  long  before  the  cult  of  saints  became  a  thing 
abhorrent  to  the  majority  of  the  English  nation. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  Henry 
and  lii-  agents  took  quite  definite  measures  to  influence 

tin-  opinions  of  the  public  along  the  lines  that  best  suited 
thcrn.    Never  was  there  a  government  more  ruthless  in 


314  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

crushing  opposition;  but  never  until  that  time,  at  least, 
one  so  careful  to  mould  the  feeling  of  the  populace  into 
retrospective  acquiescence  in  its  most  tyrannical  meas- 
ures. The  monasteries  were  suppressed  in  spite  of  com- 
plaints and  uprisings;  and  men  were  reconciled  to  the 
monstrous  outrage  not  merely  by  the  pickings  that  they 
got,  but  by  the  gradually  disseminated  belief  that  they 
had  been  rescued  from  the  clutch  of  a  mighty  octopus. 
The  shrines  at  which  they  worshipped  were  profaned  and 
destroyed;  yet  in  process  of  time  they  came  to  look  back 
at  their  ways  before  the  schism  with  something  like  hor- 
ror. The  less  said  of  the  motives  of  Henry  and  his  minis- 
ters, the  greater  the  charity;  but  in  its  effects  the  Refor- 
mation made  England  whole-heartedly  Frotestant. 

Along  with  shrines  and  images,  books  of  saints'  lives 
fell  under  the  ban  of  the  Church.  They  could  not,  like 
ecclesiastical  plate  and  the  lead  of  church  roofs,  be  sold  to 
advantage.  They  could  not  even,  like  the  stone  of  ruined 
architectural  fabrics,  be  put  to  the  base  uses  of  the  neigh- 
borhood. They  could  only  be  destroyed  —  as  rubbish. 
In  the  wanton  destruction,  of  course,  other  than  legend 
manuscripts  perished.  We  do  not  know  what  the  book  con- 
tained, of  which  a  record  exists,  that  was  used  to  patch  a 
roof;  and  the  "whole  ships  full"  that  "grocers  and  soap- 
sellers,"  according  to  John  Bale's  famous  statement,  sent 
"over  the  sea  to  the  bookbinders"  must  have  been  mixed 
cargoes  of  manuscripts.  But  one  has  only  to  see  the  de- 
facement of  surviving  books  to  understand  the  fanatical 
fury  of  the  crew  that  was  only  less  zealous  to  destroy  than 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  31 J 

to  acquire.  Two  reports  to  Cromwell,  cited  by  Cardinal 
Gasquet,  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  animus  of  King 
Henry's  inquisitors.  Dr.  Layton  wrote  from  Bath  Abbey: 
"Ye  shall  herewith  receive  a  book  of  Our  Lady's  miracles 
well  able  to  match  the  Canterbury  tales.  Such  a  book  of 
dreams  as  ye  never  saw,  which  I  found  in  the  library." 
This  from  the  man  whose  letters,  as  Cardinal  Gasquet  has 
well  said,  "on  the  face  of  them,  are  the  outpourings  of  a 
thoroughly  brutal  and  depraved  nature;  even  still,  they 
actually  soil  the  hand  that  touches  them."  Another  of 
Cromwell's  agents  selected  five  volumes  from  the  books 
of  a  country  parson,  as  evidence  against  him,  "whereof 
three  are  entitled  Ilomeliari  Joins  Echii,  being  all  three 
dated  a.d.  1438;  one  book  of  the  life  of  St.  Thomas  Bccket, 
and  a  missal  wherein  is  the  word  papa  throughoutly 
uncorrected." 

Although  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  English 
people  in  general  looked  with  disfavor  on  the  changes  that 
were  wrought  by  the  agency  of  such  men  as  Cromwell 
employed,  it  was  inevitable  that  they  should  at  length 
adjust  their  opinions  to  the  accomplished  fact.  Legends, 
like  saints  and  shrines  and  monks,  became  anathema  to 
them.  Only  the  Catholic  remnant  remained  to  cherish 
Buch  riH-ords  of  the  past ;  and  until  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth  century  Catholics  lived  in  England,  at  most  times, 
only  on  sufferance.  In  such  circumstances,  il  is  not  extraor- 
dinary that  saints'  lives  have  had  little  influence  in  Eng- 
lish literal  lire  from  the  t  ime  of  Henry's  break  wit  h  Glome 
in  1534.    The  course  they  have  followed  lias  been  for  the 


316  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

most  part  underground;  and  it  is  important  only  as  illus- 
trating a  submerged  current  of  national  life.  On  this  ac- 
count a  cursory  treatment  of  legend-writing  during  the 
past  four  centuries  is  all  that  need  be  given. 

In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  noted  that  saints'  lives 
did  not  share  in  the  movement  that  brought  English  liter- 
ature under  the  later  Tudor  sovereigns  to  a  pitch  of  great- 
ness never  before  attained.  Their  use  as  materials  for  the 
drama  has  already  been  discussed.  Except  for  this  unim- 
portant contact,  they  were  so  completely  neglected  that 
the  most  barren  century  in  English  hagiography  since 
missionaries  first  came  to  Britain  is  the  sixteenth,  at  least 
if  the  works  in  Latin  and  French  of  earlier  times  be  taken 
into  account.  A  production  like  John  Foxe's  Actes  and 
Monuments  (1563),  usually  known  as  Booh  of  Martyrs, 
cannot  be  said  to  come  within  our  survey.  Although 
Foxe  sometimes  mentioned  canonized  persons,  he  was 
too  Protestant  a  martyrologist  to  regard  them  as  saints. 
His  sketch  of  the  heroes  of  the  early  Church  is  meagre 
and  inadequate,  while  his  account  of  later  figures  is 
marked  by  inaccuracy  and  prejudice.  The  few  legends 
that  were  actually  written  in  this  period  have  interest 
chiefly  because  of  their  rarity,  and  because  they  were 
written  in  an  age  when  other  literary  types  were  develop- 
ing with  remarkable  vigor. 

The  saints'  lives  that  appeared  in  those  very  Protestant 
times  were  sometimes,  indeed,  strangely  disguised.  In 
1566,  for  example,  was  printed  The  worthie  Hystorie  of  the 
most  Noble  and  valiaunt  Knight  Placidas,  otherwise  called 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  317 

Eustas,  who  was  martyred  for  the  Profession  of  Jesus  Christ. 
There  is  nothing  in  this  doggerel  version  of  the  Eustace 
legend,  between  twelve  and  thirteen  hundred  lines  long, 
that  could  have  troubled  the  conscience  of  the  staunchest 
Protestant.  The  fact  that  Eustace  had  been  accounted  a 
saint  is  alluded  to  in  the  preface  but  is  elsewhere  dis- 
creetly obscured,  while  his  story  is  told  merely  as  an  ex- 
ample of  great  patience.  God  no  longer  addresses  Placidas 
through  the  mouth  of  the  stag,  as  in  all  the  older  versions 
of  the  story,  but  "out  from  cloudes  he  called  to  him." 
Only  for  his  skill  in  adapting  a  forbidden  theme  does  the 
otherwise  unknown  author,  John  Partridge,  deserve 
praise.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  time,  and  indicative  of 
the  audience  to  which  the  work  was  addressed,  that  Par- 
tridge dedicated  his  verses  to  a  "marchaunt  venturer"  of 
London,  to  whom  Partridge  was  apparently  chaplain. 

Of  scarcely  greater  interest  is  a  version  of  the  Thcoph- 
ilus  legend  by  an  equally  obscure  author,  William  For- 
rest, which  was  written  in  1572.  Forrest  was  educated  at 
Oxford  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  went  into  the 
Church,  and  took  up  the  cudgels  for  Queen  Katharine,  in 
whose  defense  he  wrote  A  History  of  Griseldis.  Although 
he  seems  to  have  wavered  somewhat  in  his  adherence  to 
Catholicism,  he  was  made  a  chaplain  to  Queen  Mary. 
Thereafter  he  must  have  been  steadfast,  since  his  Theoph- 
ilu.i,  written  when  he  was  a  comparatively  old  man,  was 
altogether  OH  the  Catholic  side.  It  was,  indeed,  almost  as 
much  a  controversial  tract  as  a  poetical  narrative.  For- 
rest took  pains  to  justify  himself  for  writing  a  miracle  of 


318  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

the  Virgin,  and  in  so  doing  he  made  a  rather  dull  poem 
even  duller.  For,  even  without  the  apologetics  and  ex- 
hortation, this  Theophilus  would  merit  small  praise.  The 
crabbed  verse,  pedantic  diction,  and  stilted  rhetoric  have 
no  power  to  edify  or  please.  Nowhere  in  the  one  hundred 
and  seventy-nine  seven-line  stanzas  is  there  anything  of 
real  worth.  The  legend  is  altogether  very  tedious,  and 
worthy  of  mention  only  because  such  works  were  ex- 
tremely rare  at  the  time.  It  was  never  printed  until  dis- 
covered by  a  modern  scholar,  but  perhaps  only  because  in 
1572  no  printer  could  be  found  to  handle  so  reactionary  a 
work. 

As  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  saint's  legend  was  written  in 
England,  after  William  Forrest's  attempt,  until  1595.  In 
that  year  was  composed  a  prose  life  of  St.  Etheldreda 
(Audrey),  which  is  to  be  found —  as  yet  unprinted  —  in  a 
manuscript  (no.  120)  belonging  to  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Oxford.  I  ought,  however,  to  warn  my  readers  that  in 
other  manuscripts  or  old  prints  there  may  be  legends  from 
the  sixteenth  century  that  have  escaped  my  notice.  Yet 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  extraordinarily  few  were  written. 

The  causes  for  this  silence  may  be  further  illustrated 
by  reference  to  a  very  popular  book,  of  which  the  first  edi- 
tion was  published  in  1596. 1  Any  one  who  has  ever  ex- 
amined Richard  Johnson's  The  famous  History  of  the  seven 
Champions  of  Christendom  will  see  that  it  cannot  properly 
be  classed  as  a  collection  of  saints'  lives.   It  is  rather  an 

1  Entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register  in  1596.    Copies  dated  1597, 
probably  of  the  second  edition,  are  the  earliest  surviving. 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  319 

ultra-Protestant  travesty  on  the  legends  of  certain  saints 
whoso  names  had  become  so  deeply  impressed  on  folk- 
tradition  that  they  could  be  treated  as  figures  of  romance. 
The  wild  and  fabulous  tale  of  which  they  are  made  the 
heroes  furnishes  an  amusing  comment  on  the  anti-papis- 
tical fury  of  Elizabethan  England.  Seldom  has  fancy 
played  about  any  heroes  with  so  little  restraint  as  in 
Johnson's  pages.  The  story  of  St.  George,  for  example, 
which  forms  the  groundwork  of  the  romance,  is  a  singular 
fusion  of  the  original  legend  with  the  theme  of  the  popular 
mediaeval  romance,  Sir  Beves  of  Hampton.  It  is  alto- 
gether unlikely  that  Johnson  himself  was  responsible  for 
this  fusion.  The  account  of  St.  George's  birth  that  Spen- 
ser gave  in  the  Faerie  Qucene  makes  clear  his  knowledge  of 
some  such  story  of  the  saint.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
Johnson  bedecked  the  tradition  with  the  fine  feathers  of 
Elizabethan  romance  and  made  of  it  what  it  is:  something 
extraordinarily  different  from  a  saint's  legend  proper. 
Yet  as  a  chap-book  The  Seven  Champions  had  such  a  suc- 
cess that  its  contents  have  become  a  part  of  the  common 
heritage  of  the  English-speaking  world.  An  age  that  had 
been  bullied  into  hatred  of  the  saints  thus  bequeathed  to 
the  generations  following  a  sorry  burlesque  of  saintly  lives 
with  which  to  amuse  their  children.  The  influence  of  the 
book  on  the  drama  has  been  mentioned  in  the  chapter 
preceding  this.  To  countless  Protestanl  boys  the  seven 
champions  have  been  heroes  whom  they  gratefully  remem- 
bered in  later  years-  heroes  of  fantastic  romance.  So 
there  has  been  formed  a.  curious  eddy  of  ( latholic  tradition 


320  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

in  the  midst  of  Protestantism;  an  eddy,  alas!  that  quite 
shockingly  belies  its  source. 

With  the  coming  in  of  the  seventeenth  century  there 
began  a  new  series  of  saints'  lives,  Catholic  of  authorship 
and  tendency,  and  furtive  of  publication  when  printed  at 
all,  yet  responding  to  the  literary  fashions  of  the  time. 
These  works,  which  constitute  of  themselves  a  literature 
far  more  extensive  than  one  would  deem  possible  in  the 
conditions,  show  that  by  the  time  of  Elizabeth's  death  the 
Catholic  remnant  had  assembled  its  forces  and  become 
conscious  of  its  integrity.  The  foundation  of  the  English 
College  at  Douay  by  Cardinal  Allen,  and  the  re-establish- 
ment there  of  the  Benedictines,  gave  the  Church  a  rally- 
ing-point  within  convenient  distance  from  the  shores  of 
England  and  did  much  to  preserve  Catholic  learning. 
Thence  were  sent  out  not  only  the  missionary  priests  but 
many  books  of  religious  instruction  —  among  them  saints' 
legends.  This  literature  did  not  become,  for  a  very  long 
time,  an  instrument  of  propaganda;  it  was  designed  for 
the  spiritual  sustenance  of  the  faithful.  Accordingly  it 
had  a  very  limited  circulation  and  is  now  difficult  to  trace, 
while  a  good  deal  of  it  is  mere  translation  and  has  no  im- 
portance save  as  a  record  of  religious  endeavor. 

The  first  of  these  works  that  need  be  mentioned  is 
Saint  Marie  Magdalens  Conversion,  a  poem  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  six-line  stanzas,  which  was  put  forth  without  indi- 
cation of  place  or  printer  in  1603,  the  year  of  James  I's  suc- 
cession. The  prose  address  to  the  readers  is  signed  J.  C, 
initials  that  have  not  been  identified.  Evidently  the  poem 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  321 

was  printed  for  private  circulation,  and  probably  abroad. 
The  verse  is  graceful,  but  it  followed  an  unfortunate  tradi- 
tion in  its  conceits  and  over-elaborate  descriptions.  It  is 
weak  and  tasteless  in  the  manner  of  the  worst  Elizabethan 
poetry. 

In  1608  appeared  a  more  important  work,  the  first  of 
the  long  series  of  modern  compilations  designed  to  give 
general  instruction  in  the  legends  of  the  Church.  The 
author's  name  was  John  Watson,  but  like  so  many  Catho- 
lics of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  he  was 
better  known  by  an  alias.  Thus  the  book  is  often  attri- 
buted to  John  Wilson.  Only  the  initials,  J.  W.,  appear  on 
the  title-page.  The  character  of  the  work  is  best  indicated 
by  its  title:  English  Martyrologie;  containing  a  Summary 
oj  the  Lire*  qf  the  Saiides  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland; 
collected  and  distributed  into  Moncths,  after  the  Form  of  a 
('(deader,  according  to  every  Saintcs  Festivity.  It  was 
valueless  as  a  work  of  erudition.  Indeed,  it  warranted  the 
disapprobation  of  Bishop  Challoner  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  who  wrote:  "This  writer,  besides  omitting  the 
greater  part  of  the  Saints  of  the  Scots  Calendar  (which  he 
never  saw),  and  almost  all  the  Saints  of  Ireland,  has  been 
guilty  of  many  gross  mistakes  in  History  with  regard  to 
those  he  has  commemorated,  and  generally  been  very 
unhappy  in  the  choice  of  the  materials  he  has  made  use  of, 
omitting  what  would  have  been  most  edifying  in  the  Sum- 
mary he  gives  of  the  lives  of  those  servants  of  God  and 
insisting  chiefly  on  certain  marvellous  events,  for  the 
most  part  destitute  of  any  sufficient  authority  to  support 


322  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

them."  Nevertheless,  the  fact  of  its  appearance  at  all, 
and  of  its  subsequent  re-issue  in  1640  and  1672,  shows  the 
important  place  that  the  book  filled  in  the  history  of 
Catholic  literature.  However  inadequate  it  may  have 
been,  it  served  a  useful  purpose. 

At  about  the  same  time,  apparently,  Robert  (or  Ralph) 
Buckland  compiled  The  Lives  of  Women  Sai?its  of  our 
Contrie  of  England.  Also  some  other  Lines  of  holy  Women 
written  by  some  of  the  auncient  Fathers,  a  work  that  was 
never  printed  until  brought  to  light  in  our  time  by  the 
indefatigable  Dr.  Horstmann.  The  only  manuscript 
known  seems  to  be  a  scribe's  fair  copy  from  the  author's 
original,  intended  perhaps  for  the  printer  when  an  oppor- 
tunity of  printing  came.  Why  the  book  was  thus  stifled  at 
birth  we  can  hardly  hope  to  discover.  Indeed,  its  date 
can  only  be  inferred  from  the  water-mark  of  the  paper  of 
the  manuscript  and  from  the  character  of  the  scribe's 
hand,  which  indicate  that  the  copy  was  made  between 
1610  and  1615.  The  author,  whose  English  was  as  Cice- 
ronian as  he  could  make  it,  evidently  intended  his  com- 
pilation for  a  work  of  devotion  in  praise  of  virginity;  but 
it  remains  as  a  monument  of  unrewarded  toil,  despite  the 
carefulness  of  his  method  and  the  dignity  of  his  style.  It 
is  in  two  parts,  the  first  containing  thirty-four  lives  of 
saintly  women  connected  with  the  history  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, abridged  from  various  Latin  sources,  the  second 
consisting  of  seven  longer  lives  translated  from  the 
Fathers.  The  first  part,  for  which  the  compiler  drew  most 
largely  on  John  of  Tynemouth's  Nova  Legenda  Anglice, 


THE   REFORMATION   AND   SINCE  323 

though  he  used  also  recent  works  like  Baronius'  Annates 
Ecclesiagtici  and  Lippeloo's  Vita  Sanctorum,  is  chrono- 
logically arranged.  Altogether,  it  seems  regrettable  that 
a  work  of  such  learning,  conscientiously  expended,  should 
have  failed  of  its  intended  purpose. 

Of  the  same  period  (about  1008-17)  is  Nicholas  Roscar- 
rock's  Lircs  of  the  English  Saint*,  a  still  more  important 
collection  of  prose  legends,  which  still  awaits  an  editor. 
Indeed,  the  unique  manuscript  of  the  work  has  come  to 
light  more  recently  than  is  the  case  with  any  other  legend- 
ary. The  compiler  was  a  man  of  very  considerable  erudi- 
tion, and  gathered  a  mass  of  information  with  regard  to 
the  saints  of  Great  Britain  that  should  be  made  accessible 
to  scholars.  Obviously  the  collection  had  no  chance  of 
finding  readers,  since  for  something  like  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five  years  it  was  hidden  away  in  the  library 
of  a  country-house,  and  later  in  a  Cambridgeshire  rectory. 
It  is  not  a  work  that  would  have  attracted  a  wide  audi- 
ence, in  any  case,  since  it  was  made  by  an  obscure  scholar 
for  the  use  of  other  scholars.  Roscarrock's  antiquarian 
lore  i>,  nevertheless,  of  marked  value. 

The  need  that  was  felt  among  English  Catholics  for 
collections  of  saints'  lives  for  private  rending  is  shown  by 
Mirious  translations  which  begun  to  appear  early  in  the 
century.   The  collection  of  Alfonso  Villegas  firsl  appeared 

in  a  rendering  by  W.  and  E.  Kinsman  in  1610  14;  it  was 

issued  again  in  1636,  with  additions  from  Ribadeneira;  it 

was  once  more  translated  by  John  Heigham  in  1650;  and 
still  another  version,  without  date  or  translator's  name,  is 


324  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

extant  under  the  title  of  Flos  Sanctorum.  Pedro  Riba- 
deneira's  complete  collection,  moreover,  was  translated 
by  Edward  Dawson,  and  published  at  Douay  in  1615.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  these  two  Spanish  hagiographi- 
cal  works  became  known  in  England  at  a  time  when  the 
Spanish  influence  was  beginning  to  be  felt  by  other  de- 
partments of  literature.  Still  another  translation  from 
the  earlier  decades  of  the  century  was  a  rendering  of  the 
Roman  Martyrology,  issued  by  George  Keynes  in  1627. 
The  success  of  this  can  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  a  new 
edition  of  it  was  published  forty  years  later.  Father 
Keynes  did  his  work  with  remarkable  skill ;  and  his  in- 
troduction is  a  model  of  devotional  writing. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  century  another  new  phenome- 
non is  to  be  observed:  certain  Catholic  ladies  began  to 
write,  and  among  other  things  to  write  lives  of  saints. 
Lady  Elizabeth  Falkland,  for  example,  composed  lives  in 
verse  of  Mary  Magdalene,  of  St.  Agnes,  and  of  St.  Eliza- 
beth of  Portugal.  Though  the  dates  of  these  poems  are 
not  known  to  me,  their  period  can  be  estimated  from  the 
stretch  of  Lady  Elizabeth's  career,  1585  to  1639.  St. 
Elizabeth  of  Portugal  was  the  subject  of  another  of  these 
early  feminine  excursions  in  authorship.  At  Brussels  in 
1628  was  published  A  short  Relation  of  the  Life,  Virtues 
and  Miracles  of  s.  Elizabeth,  called  the  Peacemaker,  Queen 
of  Portugall,  "translated  out  of  Dutch"  by  Catherine 
Francis  Greenung,  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis. 

In  1631  Peter  Heylyn,  chaplain  of  Archbishop  Land, 
brought  out  The  Ilistorie  of  That  most  famous  Saint  and 


THE   REFORMATION  AND   SINCE  3-2.5 

Souldier  of  Christ  Jesus  St.  George  of  Cagvadocia,  a  work 
significant  in  several  ways.  It  well  represents  the  ecclesi- 
astical tendencies  of  Laud  and  his  followers.  Though 
Heylyn  was,  of  course,  not  a  Catholic,  he  was  sufficiently 
sympathetic  with  tradition  to  treat  the  legend  of  St. 
George  without  Protestant  fury.  His  book,  if  not  wise, 
was  learned:  a  serious  examination  of  a  figure  too  inti- 
mately connected  with  England's  history  to  be  forgotten 
after  the  Reformation.  Despite  its  faults,  the  study  is 
important  as  the  first  sober  effort  of  Anglican  scholarship  v* 
in  hagiography.  In  another  way,  also,  it  marks  the  be- 
ginning of  new  conditions:  not  only  was  it  issued,  but  it 
Sj  Id.    In  1G33  a  new  edition  came  from  the  press. 

Equally  significant,  and  much  more  important  of  itself, 
is  an  allegorical  poem  on  The  Life  and  Death  of  Mary 
Magdalene  by  an  unknown  Thomas  Robinson.  If  my  con- 
clusions are  correct,  it  was  written  between  1636  and  1039. 
Dr.  Summer,  who  has  twice  edited  the  work,  assigned  it 
to  a  much  earlier  date,  and  to  a  Dr.  Thomas  Robinson 
who  was  at  one  time  Dean  of  Durham.  It  was,  however, 
a  product  <»f  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  It  is  dedicated,  in  one 
of  the  two  existing  manuscripts,  "To  the  right  honourable 
and  truly  Noble  gentleman,  Lord  Hen:  Clifford,  Lord 
Lieutenanl  Of  the  midle  shires  Of  Westmoreland,  Cum- 
berland, and  Northumberland."  Now  Henry  Clifford, 
5th  Earl  of  ( lumberland,  held  the  somewhal  unusual  posi- 
tion of  j< > i m t  lord-lieutenanl  of  those  counties  between 
March  l  1,  l<i.;<;  and  August  31,  1639.  He  was,  moreover, 
the  author  of  certain  Poetical  Translation*  of  some  Psalms 


326  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

and  the  Song  of  Solomon,  which  would  have  warranted 

Robinson  in  giving  him  the  title  of  poet,  as  he  did  in  the 

dedication.    There  is  also  a  reference  in  the  poem  itself, 

unnoticed  by  Dr.  Sommer,  that  makes  its  ascription  to 

the  reign  of  Elizabeth  impossible. 

There  stood  ye  Monarche  of  this  tripple  Isle: 
The  Destinies  for  euer  on  him  smile. 

This  pious  wish  was  sadly  frustrated,  for  Charles  I  was 
the  monarch. 

The  Life  and  Death  of  Mary  Magdalene  belongs  with  the 
poetry  that  owed  its  formal  inspiration  and  something  of 
its  inner  spirit  to  Spenser.  The  metre  is  the  eight-line 
stanza  used  by  Giles  Fletcher  in  Christ's  Victorie  and  Tri- 
umph and  by  Phineas  Fletcher  in  The  Purple  Island.  In- 
deed, it  is  to  the  brothers  Fletcher  that  our  poet  is  most 
closely  comparable.  Like  them  he  lacked  Spenser's 
breadth  of  invention  and  his  sustained  poetical  power; 
like  them  he  had  learned  from  Spenser  not  only  manner- 
isms but  a  technique  of  extraordinary  excellence  in  its 
kind.  There  are  passages  of  marvellous  beauty  in  The 
Purple  Island,  and  most  of  them  owe  their  loveliness  to 
Phineas  Fletcher's  acquirement  of  Spenser's  eye,  his  feel- 
ing, and  his  method  of  expression.  In  Giles  Fletcher  some- 
what higher  qualities  of  adaptation  are  discoverable,  es- 
pecially in  the  final  section  of  his  poem;  of  his  strain  of 
ecstatic  lyricism  Spenser  would  not  have  been  capable. 
Robinson  must,  it  is  clear,  have  been  strongly  influenced 
by  Christ's  Victorie,  even  in  the  management  of  his  theme. 
The  kinship  with- Giles  is  more  striking  than  with  Phineas, 


TIIE   REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  327 

amounting  at  times  to  imitation,  though  never  to  imita- 
tion that  is  servile.  Robinson's  talent,  however  limited  in 
scope,  was  genuine;  his  utterances  were  his  own.  From  the 
grosser  faults  against  good  taste,  which  are  the  great 
weaknesses  of  the  Fletchers,  he  was,  moreover,  compara- 
tively free.  The  tone  of  Mary  Magdalene  is  thoroughly 
reverential  and  harmonious  with  its  subject. 

It  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  narrative  of  Mary's  life. 
It  is  an  allegory  through  which  the  events  of  her  life  are  at 
once  revealed  and  illustrated.  The  treatment  is  bold,  but 
it  is  impressive  and  memorable.  Moreover,  there  are 
many  stanzas  of  rich  and  quiet  loveliness  among  the  one 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  which  the  poem  is  composed. 
The  following  will  show  some  of  the  qualities  that  make 
the  work  remarkable,  though  quotation  cannot  represent 
its  larger  excellencies. 

The  ship,  that  erst  was  toss'd  with  winde  and  tyde, 
Hath  nowe  ye  port  of  quietnesse  attaind; 
The  pQgrime  wandringe  through  y1'  deserts  wide, 
Hath  nowe  at  length  a  ioyefull  harbour  gaind; 
And  shee,  that  erst  was  pitied  and  plaind, 

Nowe  weepes  for  ioy,  and  ioyes  in  sorrow  true; 

And  faire  Syneide  is  return'd  to  viewe 
II.  r  chambers,  and  to  build  ye  palaecs  a  newe. 

More  closely  connected  with  the  general  current  of 
English  literature  than  most  saints'  lives  of  the  seven- 
teenth  century  arc  likewise  certain  poems  by  Richard  Cra- 

sliaw.  Salute  Mar//  Magdalene,  <>r  the  Weeper  (1646),  like 
the  poem  by  Thomas  Robinson,  which  was  written  only  a 
few  yean  earlier,  does  not  so  nineli  narrate  the  life  of  the 


328  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

Magdalene  as  use  her  figure  as  a  theme  for  allegorical  in- 
terpretation. Unlike  Robinson,  however,  Crashaw  merely 
descanted  upon  her  tears  and  did  not  weave  into  his  stan- 
zas any  account  of  her  life.  A  Hymn  to  the  Name  and 
Honor  of  the  Admirable  Sainte  Teresa,  published  in  the 
same  volume,  and  Alexias:  The  Complai?it  of  the  Forsaken 
Wife  of  Sainte  Alexis,  which  Crashaw  issued  two  years 
later,  show  that  he  was  never  so  much  interested  in  the 
succession  of  events  as  in  the  significance  of  them.  In 
dealing  with  saints'  lives,  as  always,  he  was  a  lyrical  poet. 
His  imagination,  delicate  and  yet  bold,  found  in  such 
themes  an  inspiration  proper  to  itself.  Very  subtle  and 
very  noble  in  their  way,  his  tributes  to  the  saints  were  less 
a  contribution  to  hagiography  than  to  the  literature  of 
religious  ecstasy.  They  are  mentioned  here  because  they 
represent  so  adequately  the  reaction  from  Puritanism  to 
Catholicism  that  preceded  the  Puritan  triumph.  The 
same  tendency,  of  course,  is  illustrated  in  Crashaw's  life: 
ejected  from  Peterhouse,  Cambridge,  in  1644,  he  died  at 
Loretto  in  1650. 

Meanwhile,  as  the  Puritan  crisis  came  nearer,  English 
Catholics  became  more  and  more  active  in  publishing  lives 
of  saints,  even  though  they  had  to  send  them  out  from 
the  printing-houses  of  France  and  the  Low  Countries. 
To  the  Society  of  Jesus,  actively  engaged  in  the  English 
nission,  many  of  these  books  were  due,  but  by  no  means 
all.  For  example,  a  Life  and  Death  of  the  Glorious  Convert 
s.  Marie  of  Mgypt,  unsigned  and  undated,  without  indica- 
tion of  place  or  printer,  represents  the  obscure  way  in 


THE  REFORMATION  AND   SINCE  329 

which  many  works  were  issued.  This  particular  book  is 
supposed  to  have  come  from  Douay  about  1680,  though 
that  cannot  be  proved.  It  is  in  verse  of  no  very  high 
accomplishment,  not  unreadable,  but  stilted  and  over- 
wrought with  conceits. 

Active  among  the  Jesuit  hagiographers  of  the  time  was 
Henry  Hawkins,  whose  books  were  issued  from  Paris.  In 
1632  he  published  The  History  of  St.  Elizabeth,  Daughter 
of  the  King  of  Hungary.  ( 'oHecied  from  various  authors,  and 
a  translation  from  the  Italian  of  Maffaeus,  entitled  Eruga 
Sceculi;  or,  the  Holy  Hatred  of  the  World.  Conteyning  the 
Lives  of  17  Holy  Confessours.  In  the  same  year,  the  first 
volume  of  a  work  on  the  'Lives  of  English  Saints  by  a  Bene- 
dictine, Jerome  Porter,  and  prepared  for  the  press  by 
Francis  Hull,  appeared  at  Douay.  The  second  volume 
was  never  published,  however,  and  the  book  is  said  to  be 
lost.  In  1635  appeared  two  different  translations  of  the 
Latin  Life  of  St.  Wenefred  by  Robert  of  Shrewsbury,  the 
one  by  Michael  Griffith,  alias  F.  Alford,  and  the  other  by 
John  Falkner,  both  of  them  Jesuits.  The  Life  and  Mir- 
acles of  St.  Benedict,  by  John  Cuthbert  Fursden,  1038,  is  a 
work  of  popularization  of  the  same  general  character. 

The  Puritan  ascendancy  seems  to  have  checked  the 
making  of  saints'  lives;  "or,  moreover,  do  they  appear  to 
have  been  cultivated  to  any  extent  under  the  laxer  sway 
of  the  restored  Stuarts.  The  repressive  measures  against 
Catholics  that  followed  th«-  Revolution  of  Kiss  are  well 
known.  It  is  not  remarkable,  therefore,  that  during  the 
Mid  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  very  few  saintly 


330  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

legends  were  written  in  English.  The  discouragement 
caused  by  the  fall  of  James  II  would,  of  itself,  account  for 
the  lack  of  hagiographical  works  from  the  latter  part  of 
the  period. 

Intrinsically  worthless,  and  curious  only  because  it  is 
the  solitary  experiment  of  the  sort  for  many  decades,  as 
far  as  I  know,  is  T he  Famous  History  of  Saint  George,  Eng- 
lands  brave  Champion,  a  versification  of  the  sections  of 
The  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom  devoted  to  the  na- 
tional saint.  Corser's  conjecture,  in  his  Collectanea  Anglo- 
Poetica,  that  it  was  made  about  1660  by  Gaudy  Bramp- 
ton, the  lord  of  a  Norfolk  manor,  seems  to  be  sound.  It 
was,  that  is,  merely  the  pastime  of  a  country  gentleman, 
which  has  chanced  to  survive  in  his  autograph  manu- 
script. More  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  time  was  an- 
other anonymous  modification  of  The  Seven  Champions, 
which  appeared  in  1685.  This  was  entitled  The  Delightful 
History  of  the  Life  and  Death  of  That  Renovmed  and  Fa- 
mous St.  Patrick,  Champion  of  Ireland.  It  contained  mat- 
ters, like  an  account  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  not  found 
in  Johnson's  book,  but  it  was  based  on  that  romantic  nar- 
rative. Of  more  importance  was  the  three-volume  Life  of 
St.  Teresa  by  Abraham  Woodhead,  published  in  1669-71. 
This  translation  of  the  saint's  autobiography  was  not  soon 
forgotten,  and  was  revived  by  Challoner  almost  a  century 
later.  Other  legends  from  this  period,  like  The  Life  and 
Gests  of  S.  Thomas  Cantilupe,  Bishop  of  Hereford  (1674), 
by  R.  S(trange),  and  a  translation  of  The  Life  of  St. 
Ignatius  by  Dominick  Bouhours,  made  by  a  "Person  of 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  331 

Quality"  in  168G,  serve  merely  to  illustrate  the  low  ebb 
to  which  hagiography  had  fallen. 

Of  purely  antiquarian  and  scholarly  impulse  were  the 
researches  which  led  to  the  publication  by  William  Cave, 
in  1674,  of  his  Antiquitates  Apostolicce:  or,  the  History  of 
tlie  Lives,  Acts  and  Martyrdoms  of  the  Holy  Apostles;  and, 
in  1077,  of  A  postal ici:  or,  the  History  of  the  Lives,  Acts, 
Deaths  and  Martyrdoms  of  those  who  were  Contemporary 
with,  or  immediately  succeeded  the  Apostles,  to  which  the 
former  work  was  appended  as  a  second  volume.  Cave's 
labors  were  respectable  rather  than  brilliant,  and  they 
have  been  forgotten.  Not  so  with  the  researches  of  Henry 
Wharton  —  once  Cave's  assistant  —  who  was  moved  by 
the  same  impulse  to  the  publication,  in  1691,  of  his 
Anglia  Sacra.  Although  his  two  folio  volumes  had  little  to 
do  with  writings  in  English,  and  concerned  themselves 
with  saints'  lives  only  when  the  saints  were  prelates,  we 
owe  to  his  devotion  some  texts  that  would  otherwise  be 
still  inaccessible.  The  Anglia  Sacra  is  a  monument  of 
brilliant  talents  spent  in  scholarship  before  youth  was 
p.i^t:  Wharton  died  only  four  years  after  the  issue  of  his 
great  work,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one. 

Through  the  reigns  of  Anne  and  George  I,  much  the 
game  conditions  prevailed  among  English  Catholics  as 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Indeed, 
to  the  previous  difficulties  of  their  existence  seems  to  have 
been  ;iililc(l  a  feeling  of  hopelessness  I  ha1  kept  them  inac- 
tive. A  genius  like  Pope,  though  a  Catholic,  could  flourish 
in  those  times,  but  only  by  adding  to  his  genius  extraor- 


332  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

dinary  pertinacity,  and  only  by  keeping  his  religion  and 
his  literary  career  quite  separate.  Of  Catholicism  during 
the  entire  period  the  records  are  singularly  incomplete. 
Dr.  Edwin  H.  Burton  says  in  his  admirable  study,  The 
Life  and  Times  of  Bishop  Challoner:  "There  has  been  no 
epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Church  in  this  land  about 
which  so  little  has  yet  been  written  as  the  half-century 
which  followed  the  Revolution.  From  1690  to  1740  there 
is  almost  a  blank  in  our  annals."  Thus  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  hagiological  studies  did  not  flourish. 

Indeed,  I  have  noted  only  one  work  of  the  sort  from 
Catholic  sources  between  1700  and  1729.  This  was  a  new 
edition,  in  1712,  by  F.  Metcalf,  a  Jesuit,  of  Falkner's 
translation  of  Robert  of  Shrewsbury's  vita  of  St.  Wene- 
fred.  Metcalf  made  some  alterations  in  Falkner's  text 
and  added  an  account  of  certain  late  miracles.  It  was  not 
a  remarkable  performance,  but  it  became  the  subject  of 
virulent  Anglican  attack.  In  the  following  year  William 
Fleetwood,  Bishop  of  Ely,  reprinted  the  little  book  as 
The  Life  and  Miracles  of  St.  Wenefrede,  together  with  her 
Litanies;  with  some  Historical  Observations  made  thereon. 
The  "observations"  were  characterized  by  prejudice 
rather  than  great  learning;  and  the  obscure  little  contro- 
versy deserves  record  only  as  showing  how  generally  neg- 
lected and  how  violently  hated  were  the  lives  of  saints. 
Although  Thomas  Dawson,  an  Anglican  antiquary,  pub- 
lished in  1714  a  book  entitled  Memories  of  St.  George  the 
English  Patron;  and  of  the  most  noble  order  of  the  Garter,  he 
used  St.  George  merely  as  a  stalking-horse  to  introduce 


THE   REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  333 

the  antiquities  of  Windsor.  Moreover,  his  pedantic  dis- 
play of  learning  with  regard  to  the  legend  of  the  saint  was 
borrowed  from  Peter  Ileylyn,  and  was  far  from  represent- 
ing a  serious  study  of  the  materials. 

With  LZSd,  however,  began  a  better  era  for  hagiogra- 
phy.  In  that  year  Dr.  Charles  Umfreville,  usually  known 
as  Charles  Fell,  published  anonymously  in  London  The 
Lives  of  Saints:  collected  from  Authentic!;  Records  of  Church 
History.  With  a  full  Account  of  the  other  Festivals  through- 
Old  the  year.  To  which  is  prefixed  a  Treatise  on  the  Moveable 
Feasts  and  Fasts  of  the  Church.  This  work  in  four  quarto 
volumes  was  a  scholarly  attempt  to  give  English  readers 
the  lives  of  the  most  important  saints  of  the  Church,  ar- 
ranging them  according  to  the  calendar  and  citing  author- 
ities. In  arrangement  and  method  it  thus  foreshadowed 
Alban  Butler's  wonderful  collection.  Indeed,  in  my  judg- 
ment, the  work  has  never  been  recognized  at  its  true 
worth.  One  gathers  that  Fell  must  have  been  difficult  as  a 
priest  and  that  he  may  have  been  disagreeable  as  a  man. 
He  seems  to  have  involved  himself,  perhaps  discreditably, 
by  the  publication  of  his  four  volumes;  and  in  1731  he  was 
declared  a  bankrupt.  In  1732  his  irregular  election  to  the 
London  "chapter"  occasioned  an  acrimonious  ecclesiasti- 
cal quarrel.  Everything  points  to  some  kind  of  personal 
animus  in  the  reception  given  The  Lives  of  Saints.  Wit- 
ham,  the  President  of  Douay,  where  Fell  had  studied  for 
two  years,  was  instrumental  in  getting  tin-  jboojc  con- 
demned at  Rome,  complaining  thai  it  was  Largely  trans- 
lated and  that  it  recorded  few  miracles.  Altogether,  the 


334  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

collection  met  with  no  favor,  even  among  Catholics, 
though  Fell  managed  to  get  a  second  edition  of  it  issued 
in  1750. 

Nevertheless,  as  I  have  intimated,  The  Lives  of  Saints 
has  real  value,  both  as  a  work  of  scholarship  and  as  an 
example  of  sound  eighteenth  century  prose.  When  one 
considers  that  it  was  compiled  while  Fell  was  working 
amid  the  hazards  and  difficulties  of  the  English  mission, 
one  cannot  fail  to  be  astonished  by  the  steady  judgment 
and  the  patient  investigation  that  it  displays.  The  style 
has  the  serene  dignity  and  the  solid  exactness  of  phrasing 
that  the  best  writers  of  the  time  knew  how  to  achieve;  and 
in  all  details  the  collection  is  workmanlike.  It  was  worthy 
of  the  best  traditions  of  the  Bollandists;  and  of  itself  it  has 
by  no  means  deserved  the  condemnation  and  neglect  it 
has  suffered.  Witham's  charges  rest  no  more  heavily  upon 
it  than  similar  charges  might  upon  any  work  of  reverent 
and  clear-sighted  Catholic  scholarship.  However  unfor- 
tunate his  career  may  have  been,  Fell's  book  should  be 
honored  by  everyone  interested  in  saints'  lives. 

In  marked  contrast  is  a  new  translation  of  Ribadeneira 
by  W.  Petre,  of  which  I  know  only  the  second  edition, 
published  in  1730:  The  Lives  of  Saints  with  Feasts  of  the 
Year,  according  to  the  Roman  Calendar.  This  was  an  ex- 
ceedingly careless  performance,  valueless  from  any  point 
of  view,  particularly  as  there  were  earlier  translations  of 
the  work.  Another  translator  of  the  time  was  William 
Crathorne,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Yaxley  and  later  of 
Augustin  Shepherd.    He  published  a  Life  of  St.  Francis  of 


TIIE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  335 

Sales  in  1737  and  a  Life  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  two  years 
later.  Both  were  from  the  French,  and  were  the  work  of 
his  old  age.  His  adequacy  for  the  task  of  translation  is  at- 
tested by  the  fact  that  he  was  prefect  of  studies  at  Douay 
before  he  went  on  the  English  mission. 

The  greatest  name,  save  Allan  Butler's,  in  English 
hagiography  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as  incomparably 
it  is  the  greatest  name  in  English  Catholicism  during  that 
period,  is  that  of  Bishop  Richard  Challoner,  Vicar  Apos- 
tolic of  the  London  District,  whose  long  life  (1691-1781) 
spanned  decades  of  intermittent  persecution  and  ex- 
tended into  times  of  comparative  religious  freedom.  His 
great  work  as  a  prelate  was  in  holding  the  Catholic 
Church  of  his  district  steady  through  many  difficult  years, 
and  in  promoting  the  educational  efforts  that  were  essen- 
tial to  its  continued  welfare.  Though  he  had  not  unusual 
learning  or  extraordinary  talent  as  a  writer,  his  revision  of 
the  Rheims  and  Douay  Bible  has  been  altered  only  in 
details;  and  his  other  publications  of  various  sorts  have 
given  him  a  place  as  eminent  in  Catholic  literature  as  the 
position  he  won  in  Catholic  history  by  the  wisdom  and 
devotion  of  his  leadership.  Obscurely  though  he  lived  in 
the  London  of  his  day,  his  work  has  been  of  lasting 
significance. 

The  first  of  his  bunks  that  deall  with  ecclesiasl  leal  biog- 
raphy was  the  Memoirs  of  M issionar;/  PriesU,  as  U veil  secu- 
lar as  regular,  and  of  other  Catholics  of  both  sens  that  have 
Buffered  death  in  England,  on  religious  accounts,  from  the 
year  of  our  Lord  161  i  to  168  \.  The  scope  of  the  work  is  per- 


336  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

fectly  indicated  by  the  long  title.  It  showed  the  patriotic 
trend  of  Challoner's  mind,  which  was  to  find  expression  in 
later  writings  and  in  his  efforts  to  restore  English  saints  to 
the  calendar.  The  Memoirs,  published  in  1741-42,  went 
through  many  editions  and  was  reprinted  as  lately  as 
1878.  More  ambitious  was  his  Britannia  Sancta:  or  the 
Lives  of  the  Most  Celebrated  British,  English,  Scottish  and 
Irish  Saints,  which  he  issued  inv1745,  a  work  of  solid  and 
painstaking  scholarship  that  is  still  valuable  for  its  well- 
documented  sketches  of  the  heroes  of  the  British  Church. 
Challoner  was  indefatigable  in  research,  and  his  historical 
judgment  was  amazingly  sound.  His  statement  concern- 
ing St.  Neot,  for  example,  that  we  have  no  account  which 
can  be  relied  on,  shows  how  far  he  excelled  in  acuteness 
most  scholars  of  his  day.  A  quotation  from  the  preface 
will  at  once  illustrate  his  style  and  the  temper  of  his  per- 
sonality. "As  to  the  motives  that  induce  us  to  publish 
these  Lives,  we  hope  they  are  no  other  than  the  glory  of 
God,  the  honour  of  his  Saints,  the  information  of  our 
Countrymen  (who  for  the  generality  are  but  little  ac- 
quainted with  this  part  of  British  history),  and  their  edifi- 
cation. We  are  not  insensible  of  the  prejudices  under 
which  many  of  them  labour  with  regard  to  the  Saints  and 
their  miracles;  which  leave  us  but  little  hope  of  this  work 
being  of  any  service  to  them :  but  we  flatter  ourselves  that 
others  may,  with  the  divine  Blessing,  be  benefited  by  the 
perusal  of  these  sheets." 

The  Britannia  Sancta  never  reached  a  large  audience. 
Challoner's  remaining  hagiographical  works,  however, 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  337 

were  popular  in  aim.  The  Wonders  of  God  in  the  Wilder- 
ness; or  the  Lives  of  the  most  ceL  braied  Saints  of  the  Oriental 
Deserts  j 1755)  was  a  summary  account  of  twenty-eight  of 
the  hermit-saints,  which  was  frequently  re-published 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1757  he 
issued  an  abridged  and  modernized  version  of  Woodhead's 
Life  of  St.  Teresa,  and  in  1761  A  Memorial  of  Ancient 
British  Piety,  which  covered  in  brief  space  the  ground  of 
the  Britannia  Saneta.  Taken  all  in  all,  ( 'halloner's  lives  of 
saints,  though  they  were  not  brilliant,  formed  a  body  of 
writings  of  exceptional  value.  Like  JEAir'ic  in  the  tenth 
century,  he  wrote  with  pure  devotion  to  truth  and  to  the 
widest  possible  diffusion  of  truth.  Somewhat  more  than 
his  present  meed  of  fame  should  properly  be  his. 

The  work  of  Alban  Butler,  with  which  eighteenth  cen- 
tury hagiography  reached  its  climax,  was  recognized  at 
once  as  of  outstanding  value,  and  it  has  never  lost  the 
admiration  which  it  excited  from  the  first.  Like  Chal- 
loner,  Butler  was  educated  at  Douay,  and  there  he  laid 
the  foundations  of  an  erudition  as  extensive  as  it  was  ex- 
act .  His  studies  were  furthered  during  his  tenure  of  a  pro- 
•rship  at  the  English  College,  but  he  did  not  publish 
his  magnum  opus  until  he  had  travelled  extensively  and 
had  served  as  ;i  missioner  in  England.  Later,  as  president, 
of  the  English  <  lollege  :ii  St.  (  hner,  he  became  involved  in 
executive  business  which  prevented  him  from  any  further 
biographical  publication,  save  The  I. iff  of  Man/  of  the 
(  rose;  but  he  .continued  his  studies  devotedly  till  his  death 

in   1773,  :it   the  ag<    of  >i\l  v-llip  . 


338  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

The  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  Martyrs,  and  Other  Principal 
Saints.  Compiled  from  Original  Monuments  and  Authentic 
Records,  on  which  he  had  been  at  work  for  many  years, 
was  published  in  four  volumes  between  1756  and  1759. 
It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  this  magnificent  work  in  tones  of 
measured  praise.    Most  of  the  author's  learning,  which 
seems  to  have  been  extraordinary  along  many  lines,  was 
not  perpetuated  in  print;  but  a  rich  harvest  of  it  went  to 
the  making  of  The  Lives  of  the  Saints.   The  book  is  the 
great  classic  of  modern  English  Catholicism,  and  it  is 
time-defying  in  the  same  way  as  is  the  history  of  Butler's 
great  contemporary,  Gibbon.  Indeed,  even  Gibbon  had  a 
good  word  to  say  of  "the  sense  and  learning"  that  it  dis- 
plays. It  contains  more  than  fifteen  hundred  biographies 
and  monographs,  each  of  which,  there  is  no  exaggeration 
in  declaring,  was  the  product  of  careful  study.  That  But- 
ler made  mistakes  cannot,  of  course,  be  denied.  His  com- 
mand of  documents  was  far  less  complete  than  ours;  and 
his  judgment  was  not  infallible.   Nevertheless,  the  accu- 
racy of  his  work  is  as  astonishing  as  its  range  of  informa- 
tion. Two  statements  from  his  "introductory  discourse" 
well  illustrate  his  attitude  of  mind,  which  was  at  once 
devout  and  critical.    "The  compiler's  first  care  in  this 
work  hath  been  a  most  scrupulous  attachment  to  truth, 
the  foundation  or  rather  the  soul  of  all  history,  especially 
of  that  which  tends  to  the  advancement  of  piety  and  reli- 
gion." "The  original  authors  are  chiefly  our  guides.  The 
stream  runs  clear  and  pure  from  the  source,  which  in  a 
long  course  often  contracts  a  foreign  mixture;  but  the 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SrNCE  339 

lucubrations  of  many  judicious  modern  critics  have  cast  a 
great  light  upon  ancient  historians:  these,  therefore,  have 
been  also  consulted  and  compared,  and  their  labours  fully 
made  use  of." 

Had  The  Lives  of  the  Saints  been  merely  a  great  monu- 
ment of  scholarship,  it  would  have  held  its  place  by  its 
sterling  qualities,  but  it  would  have  failed  to  become  the 
classic  that  it  actually  is.  "For,"  as  Butler  himself  wrote, 
"unless  a  narration  be  supported  with  some  degree  of 
dignity  and  spirit,  and  diversified  by  the  intermixture  of 
various  events,  it  deserves  not  the  name  of  history;  no 
more  than  a  plot  of  ground  can  be  called  a  garden,  which 
is  neither  variegated  with  parterres  of  flowers,  nor  check- 
ered with  walks  and  beds  of  useful  herbs  or  shrubs."  Al- 
ban  Butler's  practice  in  writing,  like  his  theory,  was  of  the 
mid-eighteenth  century.  It  can  be  accounted  none  the 
worse  for  that.  To  a  remarkable  degree,  his  style  is  "sup- 
ported" with  "dignity  and  spirit."  It  is  never  monot- 
onous, and  it  has  the  easy,  solid  dignity  of  the  best  prose 
of  his  time.  What  his  nephew  wrote  of  him  has  never  been 
put  more  justly:  "Few  authors,  on  holy  subjects,  have 
possessed,  in  a  higher  degree,  that  indescribable  charm  of 
style  which  rivets  the  reader's  attention  to  the  book, 
which  never  places  the  writer  between  the  book  and  the 
reader,  bul  insensibly  leads  him  to  the  conclusion,  some- 
times delighted,  bul  always  attentive  and  pleased." 
Whether  The  Lives  of  the  Saints  !><■  read  as  a  book  of  devo- 
tion or  of  history,  whether  by  tin'  man  of  doubting  or  of 

believing   mind,    it    cannol    well  fail   to  attract    and   give 


• 


340  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

profit.  To  any  person  of  discretion  and  taste  the  clear  dry 
light  of  the  author's  personality  has  an  abiding  charm. 
Butler's  great  work  is  the  masterpiece  of  modern  English 
hagiography :  an  almost  inexhaustible  treasury  of  learning, 
the  wealth  of  which  is  arranged  with  consummate  skill. 

Since  Butler's  day,  several  tendencies  or  movements 
have  been  responsible  for  an  increase  of  general  interest 
in  the  lives  of  saints,  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the 
writing  of  them.  These  may  well  be  separately  examined, 
though  a  detailed  description  of  the  works  in  which  they 
have  resulted  is  scarcely  necessary. 

First  of  all,  the  emancipation  of  English  Catholics  from 
civil  and  legal  disabilities  by  the  successive  acts  of  1778, 
1791,  and  1829  helped  greatly  in  promoting  the  vigorous 
growth  of  the  Church,  which  was  a  notable  phenomenon 
of  nineteenth  century  England.  With  the  restoration  of 
the  hierarchy  in  1850,  the  Catholic  Church  took  its  place 
once  more  as  a  powerful  influence  in  the  religious  life  of 
the  nation.  It  emerged  from  the  shadowed  existence  that 
it  had  been  compelled  to  endure  for  a  very  long  period. 
After  1791,  indeed,  when  it  became  permissible  for  Cath- 
olics to  celebrate  their  rites  openly,  the  new  era  began. 
From  that  time  books  of  devotion  multiplied,  and  among 
such  books  saints'  lives.  It  cannot  justly  be  maintained, 
I  think,  that  the  literature  thus  developed  has  been  intrin- 
sically remarkable.  It  has  been  largely  devoted  to  reli- 
gious instruction,  without  much  regard  to  form;  and  it 
has,  on  the  other  hand,  been  too  often  heedless  of  the 
standards  of  historical  study  that  modern  hagiology  must 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  341 

observe.  No  great  Catholic  poet  has  risen  to  envelop  the 
lives  of  saints  with  new  glory ;  no  master  of  prose  —  to 
Newman's  work  I  shall  refer  in  another  connection  —  has 
compelled  the  attention  of  men  to  the  significance  of 
saintly  biography;  and  English  Catholic  scholars  have 
contributed  surprisingly  little  to  sound  hagiography  in 
the  recent  past,  though  they  are  now  doing  their  part  with 
the  same  spirit  as  the  devoted  Bollandists.  It  is  a  hopeful 
sign  that  latterly  the  level  of  Catholic  books  of  instruction 
and  popularization  has  been  raised,  until  they  have  be- 
come quite  generally  worthy  of  praise.  This  is  as  true  in 
America  as  in  England. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  so-called  Oxford  Move- 
ment, in  the  second  place,  did  much  to  relieve  saints'  lives 
of  the  stigma  with  which  they  had  been  marked  by  Pro- 
testant disapproval.  The  Tractarians  and  their  followers, 
whether  they  embraced  Catholicism  or  remained  faithful 
to  the  Anglican  communion,  were  ardent  in  their  devotion 
to  the  saints,  and  gradually  modified  the  attitude  of  a 
very  considerable  section  of  the  public  towards  saintly 
biography.  As  a  document  of  the  movement,  The  hives  of 
the  English  Saints,  a  series  projected  by  ( 'ardinal  Newman 
before  he  left  the  Church  of  England,  and  never  com- 
pleted, has  greater  importance  than  it  has  in  and  of  itself. 
Newman  conceived  the  idea  of  getting  some  of  his  com- 
panions ami  dwiples  to  write  biographies  of  the  English 

saints,  partly,  it.  appears,  thai  they  might  find  an  outlet, 

other  than  theological,  for  their  religious  energy.    Yet  he 
had  in  mind  also,  as  is  clear  from  his  prospectus  issued  in 


342  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

1843,  to  emphasize  the  national  character  of  the  ancient 
Church  in  England,  and  to  stir  Anglicans  to  pride  in  its 
achievements.  He  drew  up  a  tentative  list  of  about  three 
hundred  names,  proposing  that  more  or  less  than  this 
number  of  lives  should  be  published,  as  circumstances 
permitted.  In  point  of  fact,  Newman  withdrew  from  the 
editorship  of  the  series  after  two  parts  had  been  issued; 
and  only  thirty-three  lives  ever  appeared. 

Although  Newman  accepted  responsibility  for  nothing 
save  the  impulse  to  the  project,  and  himself  contributed 
two  brief  legends  only,  the  work  very  properly  bears  his 
name.  He  selected  the  authors  of  the  various  biographies 
and,  what  is  even  more  important,  so  impressed  his  point 
of  view  upon  them  that  they  wrote  with  extraordinary 
unity  of  purpose  and  similarity  of  style.  Very  seldom  has 
a  group  of  men,  even  when  trained  in  the  same  university 
and  subjected  to  the  same  influences,  been  able  to  produce 
a  composite  of  such  an  even  texture.  The  reason  for  this, 
of  course,  was  that  Newman's  personality  dominated  his 
twelve  associates  and,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  formed 
their  manner.  Yet  they  were  men  of  very  different  na- 
tures, as  is  shown  by  their  subsequent  careers.  To  have 
driven  J.  A.  Froude  and  Dalgairns,  F.  W.  Faber  and  Mark 
Pattison,  Bishop  Coffin  and  Dean  Church  in  equal  har- 
ness is  an  astounding  feat.  Most  of  the  group  were  young, 
to  be  sure,  and  all  of  them  were  caught  for  the  time  in  the 
same  religious  current;  but  they  could  not  have  worked 
with  such  unanimity  of  purpose  except  under  a  great 
leader,  which  Newman  undoubtedly  was. 


THE   REFORMATION   AND   SINCE  343 

Intrinsically,  The  Lives  of  the  English  Saints  have  no 
great  merit  as  examples  of  hagiography.  The  writers  were 
hampered  by  a  somewhat  amusing  consciousness  of  their 
Catholicism;  they  felt  it  necessary  to  explain  at  every  turn 
either  that  they  believed  in  the  historical  truth  of  their 
narratives,  or  that  they  considered  them  "symbols  of  the 
invisible  "  and  therefore  very  truth.  There  is  thus  evident 
in  most  of  the  lives  something  that  seems  not  quite  genu- 
ine. It  is  not  flippant,  I  think,  to  say  that  the  Tractarians 
were  heirs  of  the  Romanticists  in  respect  to  certain  of  the 
less  noble  qualities  found  in  each  group:  the  attitudiniz- 
ing, the  exaltation  of  the  past  for  its  own  sake,  and  the 
subordination  of  fact  to  feeling.  Certainly  men  trained 
at  Oxford  should  not  have  been  guilty  of  the  gross  errors 
that  disfigure  some  of  the  critical  discussions  in  the  Lives. 
Yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  were,  explicitly,  re- 
telling old  legends,  not  writing  historical  essays.  Perhaps 
the  one  really  vicious  characteristic  of  most  of  the  lives 
in  the  series  is  the  false  air  of  learning  that  they  parade. 
Without  being  in  any  way  scholarly,  they  seem  to  be.  On 
the  other  hand,  as  narratives  they  are  nearly  all  well 
managed;  and  their  luminous  if  somewhat  artificial  style 
gives  them  a  certain  literary  significance.  I  do  not  wish  to 
minimize  their  value  or  to  deny  the  reverence  with  which 
they  were  composed;  but  it  would  be  unjust  not  to 
point  out  their  inferiority  to  Challoncr's  work  in  the  same 
field. 

Though  nine  of  the  thirteen  contributors  to  Newman's 
LU>€S   left  the  Church  of   England,   the  beginning  they 


344  SAINTS'   LEGENDS 

made  within  that  Church  was  of  lasting  importance. 
Hagiography  regained  something  of  the  dignity  that  it 
had  lost  at  the  Reformation.  Henceforward  it  was  per- 
mitted to  devout  members  of  the  communion  to  cherish 
the  memory  of  the  saints;  and  it  became  possible  for  them 
to  read  and  to  write  saintly  biography  with  intentions 
other  than  antiquarian.  There  has  grown  up  an  Anglican 
devotional  literature,  parallel  to  the  Roman  Catholic,  in 
which  the  lives  of  saints  have  a  not  unimportant  place. 
These  books  have  not  been,  for  the  most  part,  distin- 
guished by  unusual  learning  or  by  exceptional  literary 
power;  but  they  have  served  their  purpose  admirably. 
They  have  scarcely  revived  the  moribund  genre,  yet  they 
have  gradually  educated  Anglicans  and  the  Episcopalians 
of  America  in  the  legends  of  the  Church. 

Such  a  comprehensive  work,  for  example,  as  S.  Baring- 
Gould's  Lives  of  the  Saints,  the  first  edition  of  which  was 
published  in  1872-77,  could  not  have  been  made  by  an 
English  clergyman  except  for  the  impulse  of  which  I  have 
been  speaking.  The  industrious  compiler's  aim,  as  stated 
in  his  preface,  was  partly  devotional,  partly  scholarly,  and 
partly  aesthetic :  a  compound  characteristic  of  many  other 
less  ambitious  works  of  popularization.  Some  three  thou- 
sand six  hundred  memoirs  are  included  in  the  collection. 
The  legends  are  fluently  and  pleasantly  narrated,  without 
evident  bias  and  with  excellent  taste.  Exact  and  critical 
scholarship  is  not  to  be  found  in  them;  they  were  written 
with  less  care  than  Butler's  Lives,  and  by  a  less  accom- 
plished scholar.    Nevertheless,  they  serve  their  turn  for 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  345 

reading  and  for  reference  by  those  not  too  exigent  in  their 
demands. 

One  phrase  in  Baring-Gould's  preface  leads  me  to  speak 
of  a  curious  modern  development  in  connection  with 
legends.  He  says  that  he  has  chosen  to  narrate  certain 
miracles  for  various  reasons,  among  the  reasons  being 
"because  they  are  often  represented  in  art."  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  to  a  very  considerable  section  of  the  Protestant 
public  in  England  and  America  the  saints  are  chiefly 
known  "because  they  are  often  represented  in  art."  As 
knowledge  of  the  older  painters  has  been  diffused,  a  con- 
siderable literature  has  been  formed  to  give  instruction 
about  the  legendary  scenes  they  portray.  I  am  not  speak- 
ing, of  course,  of  systematic  studies  in  iconography,  a 
field  which  Protestant  and  Catholic  scholars  have  latterly 
cultivated  in  sufficient  harmony,  but  of  works  more 
vaguely  defined  in  purpose  and  less  searching  in  method. 
Mrs.  Anna  M.  Jameson,  whose  Sacred  and  Legendary  Art 
and  its  companion  volumes  are  widely  known,  was  at  once 
a  pioneer  and  an  able  compiler  of  books  designed  to  render 
the  service  I  have  mentioned. 

Another  impulse  towards  the  study  of  hagiology  in 
England  and  America  has  come  about  through  historical 
scholarship.  The  modern  historian,  with  at  least  the  desire 
to  include  impartially  within  his  field  of  investigation  all 
phases  of  life  in  the  past,  has  turned  his  attention  to  the 
lives  of  the  greal  saints.  Whatever  his  religious  creed,  he 
baa  learned  in  the  spirit  of  the  Bollandists  themselves  to 
search  patiently  for  the  truth.   His  efforts  have  been  ably 


346  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

seconded  by  scholars  whose  chief  interest  has  been  in  the 
successive  stages  of  the  English  language  or  in  the  history 
of  literature.  Such  monuments  of  scholarship  as  the  Rolls 
Series  and  the  publications  of  the  Early  English  Text 
Society,  among  many  others,  have  done  much  to  further 
our  knowledge  of  documents  and  to  foster  an  intelligent 
attitude  towards  saints'  lives.  Out  of  these  efforts  to  bring 
to  light  all  the  facts  in  the  history  of  the  British  Isles  have 
come  at  least  a  few  notable  examples  of  modern  hagiog- 
raphy  at  its  best.  Such  works  as  the  Memorials  of  St. 
Dunstan  by  the  late  Bishop  Stubbs  and  Professor  Bury's 
St.  Patrick  leave  little  to  be  desired  for  carefulness  of  in- 
vestigation and  sympathy  of  treatment.  Monographs 
like  these  cannot  be  regarded  as  pure  literature,  it  is  true, 
but  they  conform  to  the  most  ancient  purposes  for  which 
the  lives  of  saints  were  written.  Better  than  such  roman- 
tically tinged  legends  as  the  Tractarians  wrote,  they  rep- 
resent the  true  spirit  of  hagiography,  to  which  letters  have 
always  been  a  servant  and  not  a  master.  In  spite  of  aber- 
rations, the  main  reason  for  the  existence  of  saints'  lives 
throughout  their  long  history  has  been  the  perpetuation 
of  the  truth.  In  our  day,  certainly,  the  only  hope  of  re- 
storing saintly  biography  to  universal  repute  lies  in  sub- 
mitting it  to  all  the  tests  that  scholarship  has  devised. 
Once  it  has  been  placed  in  the  clearest  light,  the  nobility 
of  the  record  will  compel  men  to  listen  attentively. 

Finally,  a  word  must  be  said  concerning  the  share  that 
the  English  Romanticists  of  the  early  nineteenth  century 
had  in  moderating,  at  least,  the  prejudices  of  Protestant 


THE  REFORMATION  AND  SINCE  347 

readers  against  legends  of  the  saints.  Some  of  the  Ro- 
manticists, to  be  sure,  included  Christianity  among  the 
institutions  that  had  to  be  destroyed  in  the  name  of  lib- 
erty; Byron  and  Shelley,  for  example,  cannot  precisely 
be  accounted  defenders  of  the  faith.  Yet  the  prevailing 
temper  of  Romanticism  in  literature  favored  a  return 
upon  ancient  traditions,  and  to  the  degree  that  it  did  so 
found  the  lives  of  saints  sympathetic  material.  Allusions 
to  the  saints  by  English  poets  grew  common  as  soon  as 
Romanticism  became  the  sovereign  literary  mood,  though 
neither  by  the  Romanticists  nor  by  their  successors  have 
saints'  lives  been  narrated  with  commanding  success. 
Sympathy,  one  must  suppose,  has  outrun  real  knowledge. 
Lyrical  reference,  indeed,  has  been  more  frequent  than 
the  attempt  to  write  legends  in  verse.  John  Keble,  whose 
Christian  Year  was  published  in  1827,  had  the  temper  for 
the  task,  but  he  wrote  hymns  instead.  It  is  to  be  doubted, 
moreover,  whether  his  sense  of  form  would  have  been 
adequate  to  rehabilitate  the  type.  Certainly  the  poems  of 
Aubrey  Thomas  De  Vere,  though  sufficiently  conscien- 
tious, did  not  accomplish  this.  Saints'  lives  have  not  re- 
gained in  pure  literature,  whether  verse  or  prose,  the 
place  they  lost  when  the  schism  of  the  sixteenth  century 
rent  the  western  world  apart. 

Whether  a  literary  type  that  has  for  so  long  been  mori- 
bund among  the  English-speaking  races  will  ever  again 

become  B  powerful  factor  in  letters  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing.  It  h  permitted  the  lover  of  saintly  lore,  how- 
ever,   to    trust    that    this  may  sometime  come   to  pass. 


348  SAINTS'  LEGENDS 

The  modern  world  has  much  to  learn  from  the  veritable 
lives  of  the  saints,  as  they  are  revealed  through  critical 
scholarship;  and  it  could  find  things  of  profit  to  civiliza- 
tion even  in  the  legends  that  have  grown  up  about  their 
lives. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  following  bibliography  is  designed  to  serve  as  a  guide  to 
the  student  or  general  reader  who  may  wish  to  investigate  more 
in  detail  the  works  treated  in  the  body  of  the  book.  It  may  also 
help  the  student  to  discriminate  between  diverse  treatments  of 
the  same  legend;  a  matter  of  considerable  difficulty  and  of  some 
importance.  It  has  been  made  selective  rather  than  inclusive 
in  character,  partly  because  of  limitations  in  space  and  partly, 
too,  because  unnecessary  multiplication  of  references  befogs  the 
student  in  the  early  stages  of  his  work. 

CHAPTER  I 

DEFINITION   AND    USE 

No  better  discussion  of  definitions  could  be  wished  than  that 
found  in  Les  Legcndcs  hagiographiques  by  H.  Delehaye,  1905,  of 
which  a  second  edition  appeared  in  1906.  Translated  by  Mrs. 
N.  M.  Crawford  as  The  Legends  of  the  Saints,  1907.  Of  value  in 
forming  opinions  on  the  same  subject  are  H.  Achelis,  Die 
Murti/rologicn,  Hire  Geschichtc  vnd  ihr  Wert,  1900,  in  Abhandl. 
d.  k.  (knells,  d.  Wisscns.  zu  Gottingcn,  n.f.  hi;  E.  Lucius, 
ed.  G.  Anrich,  Die  Anfuiige  des  Heiligcnhults  in  der  chrisilichen 
Kirdie,  1904;  II.  Giinter,  Legenden-Studien,  1906,  and  Die 
ekristliche  Legende  des  Abcndlandes,  1910;  the  article  Lcgcnde 
by  E.  von  Dobschtttz  in  the  RealencyklopSdie  fUf  -protcstantische 
Theclogie;  and  the  article  Legends  of  the  Saints  by  H.  Giinter  in 
The  Catholic  Encyclopedia. 

CHAPTER   II 

ORIGINS   AND    PBOPAG  \N<>\ 

To  the  questions  raised  in  this  chapter  M.  Delehaye's  Les 
Ligendes  hagiographiques  is  incomparably  the  safest  guide  yet 
written.  The  works  by  GUnter  and  Lucius-Anrichs,  previously 


352  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

cited,  are  also  serviceable,  though  the  latter  presents  a  radical 
view  sustained  by  specious  analogies.  To  be  read  with  caution 
are  likewise  such  works  as  L.  Saintyves,  Les  Saints  successeurs 
des  dieux,  1907,  and  A.  van  Gennep,  La  Formation  des  legendes, 
1910.  P.  Allard,  Dix  lecons  sur  le  martyre,  3d  ed.  1907  (trans- 
lated 1907,  by  L.  Cappadelta,  as  Ten  Lectures  on  the  Martyrs), 
and  H.  Leclerq,  Les  Martyrs,  1902-06,  will  be  found  useful.  For 
conditions  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  a  valuable  book  is  L.  Zoepf, 
Das  Heiligen-Leben  im  10.  Jahrhundert,  1908. 

As  to  authentic  passions  of  the  early  martyrs,  see  Ruinart, 
Acta  Martyrum  Sincera,  1689,  Leclerq,  work  cited,  and  Har- 
nack,  Die  Chronologie  der  altchristlichen  Litter atur,  1904,  n, 
463-82. 

The  texts  of  the  apocryphal  New  Testament  stories  may  be 
found  in  Tischendorf,  Evangelia  Apocrypha,  2d  ed.,  1876,  and 
R.  A.  Lipsius  and  M.  Bonnet,  Acta  Apostolorum  Apocrypha, 
1891-1903.  In  translation  by  B.  H.  Cowper,  The  Apocryphal 
Gospels,  1867,  and  A.  Walker,  Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library, 
xvi  (vin  of  American  edition).  See  Lipsius,  Die  apokryphen 
Apostelgeschichten  und  Apostellegenden,  1883-90. 

The  case  of  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria  may  be  studied  in 
Viteau,  Passions  des  saints  Ecaterine  et  Pierre  d'Alexandrie, 
1897;  Narbey,  Supplement  aux  Acta  Sanctorum,  n  (1904);  H. 
Knust,  Geschichte  der  Legenden  der  h.  Katharina  von  Alexandrien, 
1890;  H.  Varnhagen,  Zur  Geschichte  der  Legende  der  Katharina 
von  Alexandrien,  in  Festschrift  der  Univ.  Erlangen  zur  Feier  des 
achtzigsten  Geburtstages  sr.  kn.  H.  d.  Prinz-regenten  Luitpold  von 
Bayern,  1901. 

As  to  Amphibalus,  see  J.  Loth  in  Revue  Celtique,  xi,  348-49. 
For  the  supposed  letter  of  Lucius  of  Britain,  see  Harnack,  in 
Sitzungsberichte  der  k.  preussischen  Akad.  der  Wissenschaften, 
1904,  pp.  909-16.  For  an  account  of  the  controversy  concerning 
the  apostolic  foundation  of  the  Church  in  Gaul,  see  Houtin,  La 
Controverse  de  V apostolicite  de  VEglise  de  France,  3d  ed.  1903, 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  353 

and  L.  Duchesne,  Fastes  fpiscopaux  de  Vaneienne  Gaule,  189-1. 
With  regard  to  gods,  heroes,  and  saints,  consult,  in  addition  to 
such  works  as  those  by  Delehaye,  Lucius-Anrichs,  Saintyves, 
and  Gttnter,  II.  Dsener,  Legendcn  dcr  heiligen  Pclagia,  1879,  and 
Die  Sintflutsagen,  1899;  G.  Anrich,  Das  antike  Mysterientoesen 
in  seinem  Einfluss  auf  das  Christentum,  1894;  and  M.  Mayer, 
Ueberdie  Vertoandtsehafi  heidwischer  und  christlischcr  Drachentb- 
ter,  in  Vcrhandl.  der  1^0.  Versamm.  deutscher  Phil.,  1890,  pp. 
336-48.  In  connection  with  Barlaam,  read  E.  Kuhn,  Bar- 
laam  und  Joasaph  in  Abhandlungen  der  k.  bayer.  Akad.  der  Wiss. 
xx  (1893). 

The  best  work  on  miraculous  portraits  and  the  like  is  E.  von 
Dobschutz,  Christusbilder,  1899.  See  also  W.  Creizenach, 
Legcnden'  und  Sagen  von  Pilatus  in  Paul  und  Braune's  Beitrage, 
l  (1874).  For  iconography,  inscriptions,  and  legend,  see  Pio 
Franchi  de'  Cavalieri,  /  martirii  di  S.  Teodote  e  di  S.  Ariadne, 
Stadi  e  Testi,  vr.  J.  FUrst,  Philologue,  lxi,  374-440;  and  L. 
Duchesne,  Revue  des  Questions  historiques,  xxxiv,  5-33. 

For  Byzantine  influences  Der  griechische  Roman,  1876,  and 
Psyche,  1890-94,  by  E.  Rohde,  arc  the  most  important  studies. 
To  the  considerable  literature  concerned  with  St.  Alexis,  M. 
Ri.sler,  Die  Fassnngen  der  Alerius-Lcgcndc,  Wiener  Beitrage, 
xxi  (1905),  will  serve  as  a  guide.  The  origins  of  St.  Eustace  are 
discussed  in  G.  II.  Gerould,  Forerunners,  Congeners,  and  Deriv- 
atives "J  the  Eustace  Legend,  Publications  of  the  Mod.  Lang. 
Ass.  xix  (1905),  335-448. 

Upon  almost  all  questions  concerning  the  development  of 
saints"  lives,  the  files  of  the  Analecta  Bollandiana  can  throw 

■ome  light    Similarly,  all  students  of  legend  should  know  the 

two  catalogues  issued  by  the  Bollandists:  Bibliotheca  hagiogra- 
phica  gram  $eu  Elenchus  Vita/rum  sanctorum,  IK!*.";,  and  Biblio- 
theca hagiographica  latino  antiqua  ei  media  cetatis,  1898  1901, 
\s ith  their  supplements. 


354  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER  III 

THE   EPIC    LEGEND   IN   OLD    ENGLISH 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  Christian  literature  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  but  little  of  value  that  gives  a  general  view  of 
it.  The  reader  will  find  helpful  Anglo-Saxon  Christian  Poetry, 
an  Address  delivered  .  .  .  at  Leiden,  October  12,  1907,  by  A.  J. 
Barnouw,  translated  by  L.  Dudley,  1914.  Too  mechanical  in 
method  to  be  of  much  value  is  G.  A.  Smithson,  The  Old  English 
Christian  Epic,  1910.  H.  Williams,  Christianity  in  Early  Britain, 
1912,  will  be  found  helpful  in  getting  the  historical  background 
into  mind.  No  treatment  of  the  legendary  portion  of  the  litera- 
ture, as  such,  has  hitherto  been  issued.  A  brief  selection  of 
references  to  the  voluminous  publications  concerning  particular 
poems  and  authors  can  best  be  given  in  the  order  in  which  they 
are  discussed  above. 

Page  55.  As  to  St.  Alban,  see  W.  Meyer,  Die  Legende  des  h. 
Albanus  des  Protomartyr  Angliae  in  Texten  vor  Beda  in  Abhand- 
lungen  der  k.  Gesellschaft  der  Wiss.  zu  Gottingen,  n.f.  vhi  (1904). 

Page  58.  The  reader  should  know,  not  only  the  monumental 
edition  of  Bede  by  C.  Plummer,  Venerabilis  Baedae  Opera  His- 
torica,  1896,  but  the  translation  by  A.  M.  Sellar,  Bedes  Ecclesi- 
astical History,  1907. 

Pages  62-89.  Cynewulf  and  the  Cynewulfian  poems.  All  the 
poems  mentioned  are  to  be  found  in  Grein-Wiilker,  Bibliothek 
der  angelsachsischen  Poesie.  Separate  editions  of  the  several 
poems  are  the  following:  W.  Strunk,  Juliana,  1904;  F.  Hol- 
thausen,  Elene,  1905;  G.  P.  Krapp,  Andreas  and  the  Fates  of  the 
Apostles,  1906.  They  may  be  conveniently  read  in  translation 
in  C.  W.  Kennedy,  The  Poems  of  Cynewulf,  1910. 

The  student  will  find  the  bibliography  of  Karl  Jansen,  Die 
Cynewulf -F or schung,  1908  (Bonner  Beitrage  zur  Anglistik,  xxiv), 
and  Zts.  f.  d.  Alterthum,  xxxm,  70-73  convenient.  Important 
studies  are  the  following :  A.  S.  Napier,  The  Old  English  Poem 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  353 

"  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles"  Academy,  Sept.  8,  1888;  M.  Traut- 
mann,  Kynewulf der  Bischqf und  Dickter,  1898  {Bonner  Beitr&ge, 
i);  the  introduction  to  A.  S.  Cook,  The  Christ  of  Cyncwulf, 
1900;  H.  Forstmann,  Untersuchungen  zur  Cuthlac-legende,  1902 
{Bonner  Beitrage,  xn);  C.  F.  Brown,  Cynewulf  and  Alcirin  in 
Publications  of  the  Mod.  Lang.  Ass,  xviii,  308-34  (1903);  F. 
Holthausen,  Zur  Quelle  von  Cynewulfs  Elene  in  Zeit.schrift  fur 
dcutsche  Philologie,  xxxvn,  1-19  (1905);  G.  Sarrazin,  Zur 
Ckronologie  und  V erf asscrf rage  angelsachaiscker  Dichtungen  in 
Englisehe  Studien,  xxxvm,  145-95  (1907);  C.  F.  Brown,  The 
Autobiographical  Element  in  the  Cynewulfian  Rune  Passages  in 
Engl.  Stud,  xxxviu,  196-233;  and  C.  F.  Brown,  Irish-Latin 
Influence  in  Cynewulfian  Texts  in  Engl.  Stud.  XL,  1-29  (1909). 

Page  91.  The  Harrowing  of  Hell  from  the  Exeter  Book  may 
be  read  in  Grein-Wttlker,  in,  175-80,  and  J.  Cramer,  Quelle, 
Verfaeser  und  Text  des  altengl.  Gedichtes  Christi  HoUenfahrt  in 
Anglia,  xix,  137-74  (1896).  Consult  J.  H.  Kirkland,  A  Study 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Poem  the  Harrowing  of  Hell,  1885.  The  Har- 
rowing of  Hell  from  the  Junian  MS.  is  to  he  found  in  Grein- 
Wtilker,  ii,  558-62.  See  F.  Grosehopp,  Anglia,  vi,  248-76  (1883). 

Page  93.  The  verses  on  Edward  the  Confessor  are  found  in  the 
versions  of  the  Chronicle  supposed  to  come  from  Abingdon  and 
Worcester.  Printed  in  Earle  and  Plummer,  Two  of  the  Saxon 
Chronicles,  1892,  i,  192-95.  The  poetical  Menology  is  found  in 
the  Abingdon  Chronicle  and  printed  by  Earle  and  Plummer,  i, 
273-82.  See  also  \{.  Irnelmann,  Das  altengl.  Mcnologium.  1902, 
and  E.  Sokoll,  Anglia  llcihlatt,  xiv,  307-15. 

CHAPTEB   IV 

PBOSE    LEGENDS    BEFORE   THE   CONQUEST 

Page 95.  &  e  W  .  Reeves,  The  Life  of  Si.  Columba,  Founder  of 
Ily,  written  by  Adamnan,  1857;  J.  T.  Fowler,  Adamnani  Vita 
8.  Columbae,  1894;  W.  Suyshe,  Th*  Fife  of  St.  Columba.  Newly 
translated  from  the  Latin,  1906. 


356  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Page  97.  Ealdhelm's  works  are  accessible  in  Migne,  Patro- 
logia  Curs.  Comp.  Lot.  lxxxix,  65-314. 

Page  103.  For  Vita  Wilfridi  Episcopi  auctore  Eddio  Stephano, 
see  J.  Raine,  The  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York,  1879,  i,  1-103 
(Rolls  Ser.  71).  Consult  B.  W.  Wells,  English  Historical  Re- 
view, vi,  535-50  (1901). 

Page  104.  See  F.  A.  Gasquet,  A  Life  of  Pope  St.  Gregory  the 
Great  written  by  a  Monk  of  the  Monastery  of  Whitby,  1904,  and 
H.  Moretus,  Anal.  Boll,  xxvi,  66-72. 

Page  105.  For  the  Vita  S.  Guthlaci  by  Felix,  see  Acta  Sanc- 
torum, Apr.  ii,  47.  Alcuin's  De  Pontificibus  et  Sanctis  Ecclesice 
Eboracensis  Carmen  may  be  found  in  J.  Raine,  work  cited,  i, 
349-98. 

Page  107.  Lantfred's  Translatio  et  Miracula  S.  Swithini  is 
printed  in  Acta  Sand.  Jul.  i,  328-37,  and  by  E.  P.  Sauvage  in 
Anal.  Boll,  iv,  367-410  (1885).  See  Gerould,  Mfric's  Legend  of 
St.  Swithin  in  Anglia,  n.f.  xx,  347-57. 

Page  108.  The  early  life  of  St.  Dunstan  is  to  be  found  in  W. 
Stubbs,  Memorials  of  Saint  Dunstan,  1874,  pp.  3-52  (Rolls  Ser. 
63). 

Page  110.  See  T.  Miller,  The  Old-English  Version  of  Bede's 
Ecclesiastical  History,  1890-91  (E.  E.  T.  S.  95,  96).  The  prose 
Martyrology  has  been  printed  by  G.  Herzfeld,  An  Old  English 
Martyrology,  1899  (E.  E.  T.  S.  116).  Consult  M.  Foerster, 
Anzeigerfiir  deutsches  Alterthum,  xxvii,  275. 

Page  111.  For  the  life  of  St.  Chad,  see  A.  S.  Napier,  Bin 
altenglische  Leben  des  h.  Chad  in  Anglia,  x,  131-56  (1888). 

Page  112.  The  translation  of  Felix's  life  of  St.  Guthlac  is 
most  readily  accessible  in  P.  Gonser,  Das  angelsachsische  Prosa- 
Leben  des  hi.  Guthlac,  1909  {Anglistische  Forschungen,  27).  See 
R.  Morris,  The  Blickling  Homilies,  1874-80  (E.  E.  T.  S.  58, 
63,  73).  Consult  M.  Foerster,  Archiv  f.  d.  Studium  d.  n. 
Sprachen,  xci,  179-206  (1893),  and  £.  S.  Napier,  Modern  Phi- 
lology, l,  303-08. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  357 

Pages  114-15.  For  St.  Mildred,  see  O.  Cockayne,  Leechd&nu, 
1804-00,  m.  422-32  (Rolls  Ser.  35).  For  The  Saints  of  England, 
Bee  F.  Liebermann,  Die  Heiligen  Englands,  1SSS).  For  the  Pas- 
sion of  St.  Quentin,  see  M.  Foerster,  Arch.j.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr. 
cvi.  258-61  (1901). 

Pages  115-21.  /Elfric.  See  C.  L.  White.  .Llfric:  a  New  Stud;/ 
of  hi.s  Life  and  Writings,  1898  (Yale  Studies,  n).  <  'atholic  Homi- 
lies edited  by  B.  Thorpe.  The  Homilies  of  .Klfric,  1844-40;  Pas- 
sions by  W.  W.  Skeat,  .Elf  He's  Lives  of  Saints,  1881-1900  (E.  E. 
T.  S.  76.  82,  94.  114).  Consult  M.  Foerster,  Ueber  die  Quelleu 
von  .T'lfric's  Homiliae  Catholieae,  1892,  as  well  as  Anglia,  xvi,  1- 
61,  and  Engl.  Stud,  xxvm,  423.  For  the  third  series,  see  J.  II. 
Ott,  Ueber  die  Quellen  der  Heiligenlebcn  in  /Elfric  s  Lives  of 
Saints,  1892;  J.  Zupitza,  Zts.  f.  d.  Alterthum,  xxix,  209-96; 
Gerould,  Anglia,  n.f.  xx,  347-57. 

Page  122.  Wulfstan.  See  A.  S.  Napier.  Wulfstan,  1883,  and 
Ueber  die  Werkc  des  altenglischen  Erzbischofs  Wulfstan,  1882. 
Also  J.  P.  Kinard,  A  Study  of  Wulfstan  s  Homilies,  1897. 

Page  123.  Jamnes  and  Mainbres,  ed.  M.  Foerster,  Areli.f.  d. 
Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  evm,  15-28  (1902).  Pseudo-Matthew,  ed.  B.  Ass- 
mann,  Uibliothek  d.  ags.  Prosa,  m,  117-37.  For  the  Gospel  of 
Nicodenws,  see  W.  H.  Hulme,  Publications  Mod.  Lang.  Ass. 
xm,  417-541  (1898),  and  Modern  Phil,  i,  579-614  (1904),  as 
well  as  M.  Foerster,  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  evil,  311-21 
(1001).  For  Vindicta  Salvatoris,  see  B.  Assmann,  Iiibl.  d.  ags. 
Prosa,  m,  181-42. 

Pagefl    123   24.     See  A.   S.   Napier,  The  History  of  the   Holy 

Rood-Tree,  1804  (E.  F.  T.  S.  103).    For  the  Discovery  of  the 

Sacred    CrOSS,    Bee    El.    Morris,  Legends  of  the   llaly  Hood,   1K71 

(E.  E.T.  S.  W).   Tales  from  the  Vitae  Patrum,ed.  l.yll.A 

inaiiii.  Bibl.   d.   ags.    Prosa,    in.    105    -JOT;    the    MolchuS   also   \>y 

W.  H.  Bulme,  Journal  of  Germanic  Philology,  i.  131    U  (1807). 

Pages  12.1  28.   St.  Michael  i>  to  l><-  found  in  MS.  Corp.  Chr. 

Coll.  (ami).    H.     Foi  St.  Christopher,  wet  E.   Fiueiiki-I,  Anglia, 


358  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

xvn,  110-22  (1895).  Of  the  Passion  of  St  Margaret  the  three  ver- 
sions were:  (1)  MS.  Cott.  Tib.  A.  3,  ed.  O.  Cockayne,  Narratiun- 
culae,  1861,  pp.  39-49;  (2)  MS.  Cott.  Otho  B.  10  (burnt);  and 
(3)  MS.  Corp.  Chr.  Coll.  Camb.  303,  ed.  B.  Assmann,  Bibl.  d. 
ags.  Prosa,  in,  170-80.  St.  Giles  and  St.  Nicholas  are  to  be  found 
in  MS.  Corp.  Chr.  Coll.  Camb.  303.  For  the  Vision  of  Leofric, 
see  A.  S.  Napier,  Transactions  Philological  Soc,  1908,  pp.  180- 
88. 

Page  126.  Life  of  St.  Neot  ed.  by  O.  Cockayne,  The  Shrine, 
1864,  pp.  12-17,  and  by  R.  Wiilker,  Anglia,  in,  102-114  (1880). 
Consult  W.  H.  Stevenson,  Assers  Life  of  King  Alfred,  1904, 
pp.  256-61. 

CHAPTER  V 

NEW   INFLUENCES:    FRANCE   AND   THE   CULT   OF   THE   VIRGIN 

Page  133.  See  P.  Meyer,  Legendes  hagiographiques  en  Frangais 
in  Histoire  litt.  de  la  France,  xxxni,  328-458  (1906). 

Page  134.  As  to  St.  Eustace,  see  Gerould,  Publ.  Mod.  Lang. 
Ass.  xix,  335-448  (1905);  as  to  the  Gregory  legend,  J.  D.  Bruce, 
Historia  Meriadoci  and  De  Ortu  Waluuanii,  1913,  pp.  xli-lv. 

Pages  135-37,  The  versions  of  St.  Margaret,  as  far  as  pub- 
lished, are  found  in  A.  Scheler,  Deux  redactions  diverses  de  la 
Ugende  de  ste.  Marguerite,  1877;  A.  Joly,  La  vie  de  ste.  Mar- 
guerite, 1879  (by  Wace);  and  F.  Spencer,  La  vie  de  ste.  Mar- 
guerite, 1887.  For  the  St.  Alban,  see  R.  Atkinson,  Vie  de  seint 
Auban,  1876.  The  later  life  of  St.  Edmund  by  Denis  Piramus, 
ed.  T.  Arnold,  Memorials  of  St.  Edmund's  Abbey,  1890-96  (Rolls 
Ser.  96).  One  version  of  St.  Edward  the  Confessor,  ed.  H.  R. 
Luard,  Lives  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  1858  (Rolls  Ser.  3). 
Modwenna,  ed.  in  part  by  H.  Suchier,  Vie  de  seint  Auban,  1876, 
pp.  54-58.  For  St.  Brendan,  see  F.  Michel,  Les  Voyages  mer- 
veilleux  de  s.  Brandan,  1888,  and  H.  Suchier,  Roman.  Stud,  i, 
567.  For  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick  by  Marie  de  France,  see 
T.  A.  Jenkins,  L'Espurgatoire  saint  Patriz,  2d  ed.  1903,  and  L. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  359 

Foulet,  Roman.  Forschurujen,  xxn,  599-G27.  The  lives  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury  may  be  found  in  Hippeau,  La  Vie  de  s. 
Thomas  le  martyr,  1S5!).  and  F.  Michel,  Chroniques  dee  dues  de 
Normandie,  1844,  in,  4G1.  For  the  Legends  by  Ware,  aside  from 
the  Ste.  Marguerite  already  cited, see  X.  Delius, M aistre  Ware's 
St.  Nicholas,  1850,  and  V.  Luzarche,  La  Vie  de  la  Vierge  Marie 
de  maitre  Waee,  1859.  As  to  Adgar,  sec  C.  Neuhaus,  Marien- 
legenden,  1886  (Alt/ran.  Bibl.  9),  W.  Rolfs,  Roman.  Forsch.  i,  179 
236,  and  J.  A.  Herbert,  Romania,  xxxn,  394-421.  For  Nicole 
de  Bozon,  see  L.  T.  Smith  and  P.  Meyer,  Lee  Contes  moralises, 
1889.  For  the  Catherine  d'Alcxandric,  see  M.  U.  Jarnik  in 
Mi  moire  qf  Acad,  of  Scierices,  Prague,  1894.  For  the  verse  trans- 
LatioD  of  Vitae  Patrum  by  Henri  d'Arci,  see  P.  Meyer,  .Xotices  et 
ert  raits,  xxxv,  lre  partie,  137  jf. 

Pages  138-39.   As  to  Robert  de  Gretham,  sec  H.  Varnhagen, 
Zts.f.  r.  Phil,  i,  541-45;  P.  Meyer,  Romania,  VII,  345,  XV,  296 
805,  xxxii,  28-37,  xxxv,  C3-C7. 

Page  140.  For  Goscelin,  see  Hist.  lift,  de  la  France,  vill,  GG0- 
77.  and  Migne.  Patr.  Curs.  Com  p.  Lot.  CLV,  9-120. 

Pages  141-42.  For  Eadmer,  see  Wharton,  Anglia  Sacra,  1G91, 
BI.  Rule.  Ilistnriu  Novorum,  18S4  (Rolls  Ser.  81),  and  F.  Lieber- 
mann,  Ungedruckte  Anglo-Normannieche  GeechichtequeUe,  1879, 
pp.  282-317.  For  Ailred,  see  Migne.  Patr.  Curs.  Comp.  Lat. 
exev,  195-79G.  For  John  of  Salisbury,  see  J.  C.  Robertson, 
Materials  for   the  History  of   Thomas  Becket,  1875-85,  n,  299- 

l  (Rolls  Ser.  67). 

Pages  1 18-44.  For  Giraldus,  see  J.  S.  Brewer.  J.  F.  Dimock, 
anrl  G.  F.   Warner,  (,'truldi  Comhrcnsis  Opera,   1S(J1-91    (Rolls 

Si  r.  21 ).  For  A. lam.  Bee  J.  F.  Dimock,  Magna  Vita  S.  Hugonie, 

1864   (Rolls  Ser.  87).    Afl  to  the  matters  under  discussion,  tin- 
reader    may    profitably    consult    E.    A.    Abbott,    St.    Thomas   of 

Canterbury:  Hi*  l><nth  and  Miracles,  ls!>s.  and  II.  Thurston, 
/  Life  of  st.  Hugh  of  Lincoln,  L898.  For  the  Uses  of  St.  Ed- 
mund, see  W.  Wallace,  Life  qf  St.  Edmund  qf  Canterbury,  I 


360  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1-18.  Extracts  from  the  life  of  St.  Gilbert  may  be  found  in 
Dugdale's  Monasticon,  2d  ed. 

Page  145.  For  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick,  see  E.  Mall,  Zur 
Geschichte  der  Legende  vom  Purgatorium  des  heil.  Patricius  in 
Roman.  Forsch.  vi,  139-97  (1891).  For  the  Vision  of  a  Monk 
of  Eynsham,  see  H.  Thurston,  The  Life  of  St.  Hugh  of  Lincoln, 
1898,  pp.  348-56,  617-21. 

Pages  146-50.  Consult  F.  A.  von  Lehner,  Die  Marienve- 
rehrung  in  den  ersten  Jahrhunderten,  1886,  and  L.  Zoepf,  Das 
Heiligen-Leben,  1908.  For  Mary  legends,  specifically,  see  A. 
Mussafia,  Studien  zu  den  mittelalterlichen  Marienlegenden  in 
Wiener  Sitzungsberichte  der  k.  Akad.  der  Wissenschaften,  1887- 
98,  also  Denkschriften,  xliv,  1896;  and  J.  B.  Haureau,  many  im- 
portant studies  in  Journal  des  Savants,  Memoirs  de  I  'AcadSmie 
des  Inscriptions,  Notices  et  extraits,  and  Hist.  litt.  de  la  France. 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION.   I 

A  general  account  of  the  Middle  English  legend  collections  is 
to  be  found  in  the  introduction  to  C.  Horstmann,  Altenglische 
Legenden,  neue  Folge,  1881.  Horstmann  had  printed  much  of 
his  information  concerning  the  South-English  Legendary  in 
Altenglische  Legenden,  1875.  In  spite  of  the  defects  of  his  work 
as  editor  and  compiler,  students  of  Middle  English  legends  owe 
an  incalculable  debt  to  Dr.  Horstmann. 

Page  152.  South-English  Legendary.  MSS.  containing  the 
whole  or  a  part  of  the  collection,  as  far  as  known  to  me,  are  the 
following:  — British  Museum:  Harl.  2277,  2250,  4012,  Royal 
17,  C.  XVII,  Stowe  669,  Egerton  1993,  Cott.  Jul.  D.  IX,  Cott. 
Calig.  A.  2,  Cott.  Cleop.  D.  IX,  Addit.  10301, 10626;  Bodleian: 
Ashmole  43,  Laud  108,  Laud  463  (formerly  L.  70),  Vernon, 
Bodl.  779;  Tanner  17,  Rawl.  poet.  225;  Trinity,  Oxford,  57; 
Trinity,  Camb.  R.  3.  25;  Corp.  Chr.  Camb.  145;  St.  John's, 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  3G1 

Cam!).  B.  G;  King's,  Camb.  1.5;  Pepysian.  Cam!).  2344;  Lambeth 
223;  Auchinleck;  Bedford;  Phillipps  8253. 

Only  one  IMS.  has  been  printed  in  its  entirety  (Laud  108)  by 
C.  Horstmann,  The  Early  South-English  Legendary  or  Lives  of 

Saints,  1887  (E.  E.  T.  S.  87).  The  following  legends  have  else- 
where been  edited:  —  By  F.  J.  Furnivall.  Early  English  Poems 
and  Lives  of  Saints,  18G2,  from  Harl.  2277.  Andrew,  Catharine, 
Christopher,  Dunstan,  Edmund  of  East  Anglia,  Edmund  of 
Abingdon,  Kenehn,  Lucy,  Pilate,  Sirithin,  Ursula,  and  from 
Laud  108,  James  the  Greater  (in  part) ;  by  T.  Wright,  St.  Brandan 
1844  (Percy  Soc.  14),  from  Harl.  2277,  Brendan;  by  C.  Horst- 
mann, Jahrbuehf.  rom.  und  engl.  Spr.  und  Litt.  n.f.  i,  150-180, 
from  Laud  108,  Michael,  n.f.  ii,  32-41,  from  Laud  108,  Chris- 
topher, Dunstan;  by  W.  H.  Black,  The  Life  and  Martyrdom  of 
Ttujman  Becket,  1846  (Percy  Soc.  19),  from  Harl.  2277,  Thomas 
Becket;  by  Horstmann,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  liii,  17-48, 
from  Ashmole  43,  Brendan;  by  Horstmann,  Altenglischc  Leg- 
enden,  1875,  pp.  64-109,  from  Ash.  43  and  Egerton  1993,  Birth 
of  Jesus,  pp.  113-48,  from  Bodl.  779,  Barlaam,  pp.  151-211,  from 
Ash.  43,  Egerton  1993,  and  Laud  108,  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick; 
by  O.  Cockayne,  Seinte  Marhcrete,  1866,  pp.  24-33,  from  Harl. 
2277,  Margaret;  by  J.  Earle,  Gloucester  Fragments,  1862,  pp. 
78-81,  from  Laud  463  (with  var.  from  Trin.  Oxf.  57)  Swilhin;  by 
\Y.  B.  1>.  IX  Turnbull,  Legendac  Catholicae,  1840,  from  Aueh.. 
Birth  of  Mary;  by  Horstmann,  Sammlung  altcngl.  Leg.,  1878, 
pp.  US  02,  from  Laud  108,  Mary  Magdalene;  by  Horstmann, 
Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxviii,  52-73,  from  Trin.  Camb. 
R.  3.  25  and  Lamb.  223,  Mary  Magdalene.  The  thirty-one  addi- 
tional legends  of  Bodl.  77!)  were  printed  by  Borstmann,  Arch, 
f.d.  stud.  (I.  n.  Spr.  i.xxxii.  :U)7-  58,  389  122  1 1889).  See  also 
M.  BaHz,  Die  me.  BrendanAegende  des  Qloucesterlegendars 
hriHsch  herausgegeben,  l!»<><>,  and  W.  Schmidt,  Ueber  den  stil  der 
Legenden  des  MS,  Laud  108,  1893. 
Page  159.  Lor  Robert  of  Gloucester,  tee  W.  A.  Wright,  The 


362  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Metrical  Chronicle  of  Robert  of  Gloucester,  1887  (Rolls  Ser.  86); 
W.  Ellmer,  Anglia,  x,  1-37, 291-322  (1888) ;  and  H.  Strohmeyer, 
Der  Stil  der  men.  Reimchronik  Roberts  von  Gloucester,  1891. 

Page  164.  North-English  Homily  Collection.  The  MSS.  con- 
taining the  collection  are  the  following: —  (1)  Original  form: 
Royal  College  of  Physicians,  Edinburgh,  Ch.  5.  21;  Ashmole  42 
in  the  Bodleian;  Lambeth  260;  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Gg  V.  31,  and 
Dd  I.  1;  Harl.  2391  and  Addit.  38010  (formerly  Phillipps  8254) 
in  the  Brit.  Mus. ;  Phillipps  8122  (now  sold).  (2)  Expanded  form 
(a) :  Vernon  in  the  Bodl.,  and  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  22283.  (3)  Ex- 
panded form  (b) :  Harl.  4196  and  Cott.  Tib.  E.  VII  in  the  Brit. 
Mus.  (4)  Fragments:  Eng.  poet.  C.  4  in  the  Bodl.  and  a  MS.  be- 
longing to  Lord  Robartes.  See  Napier,  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n. 
Spr.  lxxxiv,  324. 

A  complete  edition  of  the  work  has  not  yet  been  made,  though 
I  have  the  materials  at  hand  for  a  text  of  the  original  collection, 
to  be  issued  by  the  E.  E.  T.  S.  The  Edinburgh  MS.  was  edited 
by  J.  Small,  English  Metrical  Homilies,  1862  (with  lacunae  sup- 
plied from  Camb.  Univ.  Gg  V.  31  and  Ash.  42).  See  Horstmann, 
Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  77-81,  for  Peter  and  Paul  from  Ash.  42 
and  pp.  174-88,  for  Alexis  from  Ash.  42  and  Camb.  Univ.  Gg 
V.  31.  The  gospel  stories  from  MS.  Vernon  have  been  printed  by 
Horstmann,  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lvii,  241-316,  and  the 
Proprium  Sanctorum  from  the  same  source  and  by  the  same 
editor  in  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxxxi,  83-114,  299-321. 
The  second  part  of  the  collection  of  MS.  Harl.  4196  has  been 
printed,  with  some  omissions,  by  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg. 
n.f.,  pp.  1-173. 

See,  further,  O.  Retzlaff,  Untcrsuchungen  iiber  den  nordengli- 
schen  Legendencyclus,  1888,  O.  Weber,  The  Language  of  the  Eng- 
lish Metrical  Homilies,  1902,  and  G.  H.  Gerould,  The  North- 
English  Homily  Collection,  1902. 

Page  175.  The  Passion  of  Our  Lord  has  been  edited  by  F.  A. 
Foster,  The  Northern  Passion,  1913-15  (E.  E.  T.  S.  145, 147). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  368 

Page  17G.  Scottish  Legend  Collection.  Found  in  MS.  Camb. 
Univ.  Libr.  Gg  II.  6.  Edited  l>y  C.  Horstmann,  Harbour's  des 
schottischen  Nationaldichters  Legendensammhmg,  1SS1  82,  and 
W.  M.  Metcalfe,  Legends  <>f  the  Saints  in  the  Scottish  Dialect, 
189(!  (Scottish  Text  Soc.).  See  P.  Buss,  Aiujlia,  ix,  493-514,  and 
E.  Koeppel,  Engl.  Stud.  x.  873. 

Page  184.  Mirk's  Fcstial.  The  following  is  at  least  a  partial 
li>t  of  MSS.:  Cott.  Claud.  A.  II,  Lansdowne  892,  Harl.  2403, 
Harl.  ^247,  Harl.  2391,  Cajus  Coll.  Camb.  108,  Camb.  Univ. 
Libr.  Dd  X.  50,  Ff.  II.  38,  Ee  II.  15,  Nn  III.  10,  St.  John's 
Coll.  Camb.  9.  19  (from  Rouen  ed.  of  1499),  Bodl.  Gough  Eccl. 
Top.  4,  Shrewsbury.  Edited  by  T.  Erbe,  1905,  Pt.  I  only  (E.  E. 
T.  S.  XCVI).  St.  Alkmund  printed  by  Horstmann,  Altengl. 
Leg.  x.F.,  pp.  exxiv-exxvi. 

Page  188.  Osbern  Bokenam.  Legends  found  in  MS.  Arundel 
347.  Edited  as  The  Lyuys  of  Seyntys  for  Roxburghe  ( Hub,  1835, 
and  by  C.  Horstmann,  Osbern  Bokenam  s  Legenden,  1883.  See 
G.  Willenberg,  Engl.  Stud,  xn,  1-37  (1889).  M appula  Angliae, 
ed.  Horstmann,  Engl.  Stud,  x,  1-41  (1887). 

Page  194.  Legenda  Aurea.  Translation  1,  of  Vernon  MS.,  ed. 
C.  Horstmann,  Sammlung  altengl.  Legenden,  1878,  pp.  1-97. 
Translation  2,  MSS.  Egerton  870,  Harl.  4755,  Harl.  030,  Douce 
37-2.  Bodleian  596,  Trim  Coll.  Dublin  319.  Printed  by  Caxton 
as  The  Golden  Legende,  1483.  For  later  editions  see  P.  Butler, 
J        Hi/a  Anna,  Legende  doree,  Golden  Legend,  189!). 

Page  197.  Nova  Legenda  Anglic,  ed.  C.  Horstmann,  1901,  with 
elaborate  introduction. 

Page  L99.  Cursor  Mundi,  ed.  R.  Morris,  1874-93  (E.  E.  T.  S. 
57,  59,  82,  66,  (is.  99,  101). 

Page  200.  Manuel  des  Pechiez  and  Handlyng  Synne,  ed.  P.  .1. 
Fnn.ivall.  Roxburghe  Club  1862;  reissued  by  E.  E.  T.  S.  119, 
128     1901  08). 

Page  201.  An  Alphabet  qf  Tale,,  ed.  M.  M.  Ban!  i,  1904  05 
'!     I    T.  S.  126,  127). 


364  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CONQUEST  TO  THE  REFORMATION.   II 

Page  206.  Vision  of  St.  Paul.  MS.  Lambeth  487.  See  R. 
Morris,  Old  English  Homilies,  1867,  I,  41-47  (E.  E.  T.  S.  34). 

Pages  208,  209.  Catharine  of  Alexandria.  MSS.  Royal  17. 
A.  XXVII,  Bodleian  NE.  A.  3.  11,  Cott.  Titus  D.  XVIII.  Ed. 
J.  Morton,  The  Legend  of  St.  Katherine,  1841,  and  E.  Einenkel, 
The  Life  of  St.  Katherine,  1884  (E.  E.  T.  S.  80).  Margaret  and 
Juliana.  MSS.  Royal  17.  A.  XXVEI,  Bodleian  34.  Margaret, 
ed.  O.  Cockayne,  Seinte  Marherete,  1866  (E.  E.  T.  S.  13).  Juli- 
ana, ed.  O.  Cockayne  and  E.  Brock,  The  Lifelade  of  St.  Juliana, 
1872  (E.  E.  T.  S.  51).  For  all  three  poems,  see  Einenkel, 
Anglia,  v,  110-22,  H.  Stodte,  Uber  die  Sprache  u.  Heimat  der 
Katharine-gruppe,  1896,  O.  Backhaus,  Uber  die  Quelle  der  men. 
Legende  von  der  h.  Juliane,  1899.  For  Middle  English  versions 
of  Margaret,  see  E.  Krahl,  Untersuchungen  uber  vier  Versionen 
der  men.  Margareten-legende,  1889. 

Pages  210,  211.  Meiden  Margerete.  Aside  from  the  version 
of  MS.  Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  B.  14.  39,  the  poem  is  found  in  MS. 
Auchinleck,  ed.  W.  B.  D.  D.  Turnbull,  Legendae  Catholicae, 
1840,  and  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  225-35;  and  in 
MS.  Bodl.  779,  ed.  Horstmann,  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr. 
lxxix,  411-19. 

Pages  212,  213.  Eustace.  MSS.  Digby  86  and  Ashmole  61. 
Ed.  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  211-19.  Assumption 
of  Our  Lady.  A.  Original  Form.  MSS.  and  editions:  (1)  Camb. 
Univ.  Libr.  Gg  IV.  27.  2,  ed.  J.  R.  Lumby,  King  Horn,  1866 
(E.  E.  T.  S.  14,  re-ed.  G.  H.  McKnight),  pp.  44-50;  (2)  Brit. 
Mus.  Addit.  10036,  ed.  Lumby,  pp.  75-100,  and  R.  Morris, 
Cursor  Mundi,  p.  1638;  (3)  Harl.  2382,  in-edited;  (4)  Camb. 
Univ.  Libr.  Dd  I.  1,  in-edited;  (5)  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Ff  II.  38. 
23,  in-edited;  (6)  Chetham  Libr.  Manchester  8009,  in-edited. 
Revision  A.  In  South-English  Legendary.     Occurs  in  various 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  365 

MSS.  of  the  Legendary,  but  is  still  in-edited.  Revision  B.  In 
expanded  North-English  Homily  Collection,  MSS.  Harl.  4196 
and  Cott.  Tib.  E.  VII.  Edited  Horstmann.  Altengl.  Leg.  N.F., 
pp.  11-2-18.  Revision  C.  In  Cursor  Mundi,  vv.  20065  Jf.  See 
references  under  Cha]>ter  VI.  Revision  D.  MS.  Auehinleek. 
In  tail-rhyme  stanzas.  Ed.  M.  Sehwarz,  Engl.  Stud,  vm,  427- 
64  (1885).  A  so-called  critical  text  of  the  original  version  is  in 
E.  Haekauf,  Assumptio  Mariac.  1902.  See  also  F.  Gierth.  Engl. 
Stud,  vii,  1-33,  and  P.  Leendertz,  Engl.  Stud.  xxxv.  350-58. 

Page  214.  The  Harrowing  of  Hell.  MSS.  Digby  86,  Harl. 
2253,  Auehinleek.  It  has  been  many  times  edited  from  one  or 
more  of  the  MSS.  but  not  often  in  trustworthy  form.  A  satis- 
faetory  text  of  the  three  MSS.,  with  bibliography,  is  in  W.  H. 
Hulme,  The  Middle  English  Harrowing  of  Hell  and  Gospel  of 
Nicodemus,  1908  (E.  E.  T.  S.    C). 

Page  215.  ChiUUvood  of  Jesus.  MS.  Laud  108.  Ed.  Horst- 
mann, Altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  1-61.  See  P.  Meyer,  Romania  xvm, 
128. 

Page  216.  Gregory.  MSS.  and  editions:  Vernon,  ed.  Horst- 
mann, Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lv,  407-38  (1876);  Auehinleek, 
ed.  Turnbull,  Legendae  Catholicae,  and  F.  Sehulz,  Die  cngl. 
Gregorlegende,  1876;  Cott.  Cleop.  D.  IX,  ed.  Horstmann,  Areh. 
f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lvii,  59-83;  Bawl.  poet.  225  (?),  in-edited 
(see  W.  Heuser,  Engl.  Stud,  xxxn,  5).  "Critical"  ed.  by  C. 
Keller,  Die  mittclengliscfie  Gregoriuslegende,  1914.  See  E.  Kiil- 
bing,  Uber  die  englische  Version  der  Gregorlegende  in  Beitrdgc 
zur  vergleichendni  Geschichte  der  Poesie  u.  Prosa,  1876,  O.  Neus- 
sell.  Uber  die  liearbeitinigcn  der  Sage  von  Gregorius,  1886,  and 
C.  Keller.  Einleitung  zu  einer  kritiscken  Ausgabe  der  men.  Gre- 
goriuslegende, 1909. 

Page  217.   St.   Patrick**  Purgatory.    MS.   Auehinleek,  ed.  E. 

Kolbing,  Engl.  8tud.  I,  57-112  (1877).  For  the  literature  con- 
nected with  the  Tractatus  de  Purgatorio,  Bee  T.  Wright,  St. 

Patrick's  Purgatory.   18  H;    Kiilbing,  as  cited;  E.  Mall,  Roman. 


366  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Forschungen,  vi,  139-97  (1891);  S.  Eckleben,  Die  dlteste  Schil- 
derung  vom  Fegefeuer  des  h.  Patricius,  1885;  G.  P.  Krapp,  The 
Legend  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  1900. 

Page  218.  Adam  and  Eve.  MS.  Auchinleck,  ed.  Horstmann, 
Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  139-47.  See  F.  Bachmann,  Die 
beiden  metrichen  Versionen  des  me.  Canticum  de  Creatione,  1891, 
and  W.  Meyer,  Vita  Adae  et  Evae  in  Abhandlungen  der  bay. 
Akad.  xiv,  185-250  (1879). 

Page  219.  Catharine.  MSS.  Auchinleck,  Cajus  Coll.  Camb. 
175,  ed.  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  242-59. 

Page  220.  Mary  Magdalene.  MS.  Auchinleck,  ed.  Horst- 
mann, Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  163-70.  For  South-English 
Legendary,  see  references  under  Chapter  VI.  Version  of  North- 
English  Homily  Collection  in  MS.  Harl.  4196,  and  ed.  as  indi- 
cated under  Chapter  VI.  See  O.  Knork,  Untersuchungen  iiber 
die  me.  Magdalenenlegende,  1889. 

Page  221.  Marina.  MS.  Harl.  2253,  ed.  K.  Boddeker,  Altengl. 
Dichtungen  des  MS.  Harl.  2253,  1878,  pp.  254-63,  and  Horst- 
mann, Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  171-73. 

Page  222.  Vision  of  St.  Paul.  Version  (1)  MSS.  Jesus  Coll. 
Oxford  29,  ed.  R.  Morris,  An  Old  English  Miscellany,  1872 
(E.  E.  T.  S.  49),  pp.  147-55,  and  Digby  86,  ed.  Horstmann, 
Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxii,  403-06  (1879).  Version  (2)  MS. 
Laud  108,  ed.  Horstmann,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lii,  35-38 
(1874).  See  H.  Brandes,  Visio  St.  Pauli,  ein  Beitrag  zur  Visions- 
litteratur,  1885,  and  Engl.  Stud,  vn,  34-65  (1884). 

Page  223.  Jacob  and  Joseph.  MS.  Bodleian  652,  ed.  W.  Heu- 
ser,  Das  friihmittelengl.  Josephlied,  Bonner  Beitr.  xvn,  83-121 
(1905). 

Page  225.  Gospel  of  Nicodemus.  MSS.  Cott.  Galba  E.  IX, 
Harl.  4196,  Addit.  32578,  Sion  Coll.  arc.  L.  40.  2a+2.  Ed.  W.  H. 
Hulme,  as  above,  under  p.  214. 

Page  226.  Childhood  of  Jesus.  MSS.  and  editions:  Harl. 
2399,  Horstmann,  Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  111-23;  Harl. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  867 

3954,  tvork  cited,  pp.  101-10;  Addit.  3104-2,  Horstmann,  Arch. 
f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxxiv,  327-89.  See  II.  Landshoff,  Kind- 
he  if  Jem,  1889. 

Page  227.  St.  Alexis.  MSS.  and  editions:  Vernon,  Horst- 
mann, Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  i.vi.  391-401,  and  F.  J.  Furni- 
vall,  Adam  Dame's  o  Dreams,  1878  (E.  E.  T.  S.  69),  pp.  17-79; 
Land  108,  Horstmann,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  LI,  101-10, 
and  Fnrnivall,  place  cited;  Naples  XIII.  B.  '29,  in-edited  as  a 
whole;  Durham  Cath.  Libr.  D.  V.  II.  14,  in-edited  as  a  whole. 
Critical  ed.  of  the  first  three  by  J.  Schipper,  Englische  Alexvus- 
legenden,  1877.  See  M.  Rosier,  Die  Fassungen  der  Alexius- 
legende,  1905  {Wiener  Beitr.  xxi),  and  Gerould,  Engl.  Stud. 
xxxvn,  134-41. 

Page  228.  Celestin.  MS.  Land  463  (formerly  L.  70),  ed. 
Horstmann.  „ inglia,  i,  55-85  (1878).  Barlaam.  MS.  Vernon, 
ed.  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  215-25.  Euphrosyne.  MS. 
Vernon,  ed.  Horstmann,  Engl.  Stud,  i,  300-11  (1877),  and 
Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  174-82. 

Pages  229,  280.  Vision  of  St.  Paul.  MSS.  Vernon  and  Addit. 
22288,  ed.  Morris,  .-In  Old  English  Miscellany,  pp.  '22:;  82, 
Horstmann  and  Fnrnivall,  Minor  Poems  of  the  Vernon  MS., 
1892  (E.  E.  T.  S.  98),  pp.  251-260,  and  Horstmann,  Engl. 
Stud,  i,  293-99.  The  Trental  of  St.  Gregory.  MSS.  and  editions: 
Vernon,  Horstmann,  Engl.  Stud,  vra,  275-77  (1885),  and 
Horstmann  and  Fnrnivall,  Minor  Poems  <f  the  Vernon  MS., 
pp.  260-68;  Cott.  Calig.  A.  II,  and  Lambeth  306,  Fnrnivall, 
Political,  BeUgious,  o„d  Lore  Poems,  l hc;<;  (F.  F.  T.  S.  16),  pp. 
BS  92,  and  Horstmann  and  Furnivall,  Minor  Poems,  pp.  260 
<;-. '  it  ts-.  Balliol  (oil.  Oxford  854,  in-edited;  Garrett,  Prince- 
ton Univ.,  R.  K.  Root,  Engl.  Stud,  m,  866-71  (1910). 
"Critical"  ed.  by  A.  Eaufmann,  Trentalle  Sancti  Gregorii,  1889 
(Erlanger  Beitr.  8).  See  II.  Varnhagen,  Anglia,  nn,  105  06. 

p.  i.   Margaret.     MSS.    and    editions:    Ashmole    61, 

Horstmann,  AUengl.  Leg.  m.f.,  pp.  286   H;  Brome  Hall.  Suffolk, 


368  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

L.  T.  Smith,  A  Common-place  Book  of  the  15th  Century,  1886. 
St.  Patrick's  Purgatory.  MSS.  and  editions:  Cott.  Calig.  A.  II, 
Kolbing,  Engl.  Stud,  i,  113-21;  Brome  Hall,  Suffolk,  L.  T. 
Smith,  Engl.  Stud,  rx,  3-12,  and  A  Common-place  Book. 

Page  232.  Catharine.  MSS.  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Ff  H.  38,  and 
Rawl.  poet.  34.  Former  ed.  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp. 
260-64,  latter  in-edited.  St.  Alexis.  A.  MSS.  Laud  463  (for- 
merly L.  70)  and  Trin.  Coll.  Oxford  57.  Ed.  Horstmann,  Arch, 
f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lvi,  401-16,  and  Furnivall,  Adam  Davie's 
5  Dreams,  pp.  17-79.  Critical  edition  by  J.  Schipper,  Die 
zweite  Version  der  men.  Alexiuslegenden,  1887  {Wiener  Sitzungs- 
berichte,  cxiv).  B.  MS.  Laud  622,  ed.  Furnivall,  place  cited, 
and  Horstmann,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lix,  79-90. 

Page  234.  Canticum  de  Creatione.  MS.  Trin.  Coll.  Oxford 
57,  ed.  Horstmann,  Anglia,  i,  287-331,  and  Sammlung  altengl. 
Leg.,  pp.  124-38.  See  F.  Bachmann,  Die  beiden  metrischen  Ver- 
sionen  des  me.   Canticum  de  Creatione,  1891. 

Pages  235,  236.  Christopher.  MS.  Thornton,  ed.  Horstmann, 
Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  454-66.  John  the  Evangelist.  MS.  Thorn- 
ton, ed.  G.  G.  Perry,  Religious  Pieces  in  Prose  and  Verse,  1867 
(re-issued  1914),  (E.  E.  T.  S.  26),  pp.  97-105,  and  Horstmann, 
work  cited,  pp.  467-71. 

Page  237.  Erkenwald.  MS.  Harl.  2250,  ed.  Horstmann, 
work  cited,  pp.  265-74. 

Page  238.  Susanna.  MSS.  and  editions:  Vernon,  Horst- 
mann, Anglia,  i,  93-101,  and  F.  J.  Amours,  Scottish  Alliterative 
Poems,  1897,  pp.  172-87  (Scot.  Text  Soc.  27,  38);  Cott.  Calig. 
A.  II,  Horstmann,  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxii,  406-11; 
Phillipps  8252,  Horstmann  and  Kolbing,  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n. 
Spr.  lxxiv,  339-44;  Addit.  22283,  in-edited,  variants  Arch, 
f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxii,  411-13;  Ingleby,  in-edited,  variants 
by  Amours,  work  cited.  Critical  ed.  H.  Koster,  Huchowrfs  Pistel 
of  Sivete  Susan,  1895.  See  O.  G.  Brade,  Tiber  Huchown's  Pistil 
oj  Swete  Susan,  1892. 


BIBLIOGRAHIY  369 

Pages  239-44.  St.  Cecilia.  For  data  necessary  to  the  study  of 
Chaucer's  works,  see  E.  P.  Hammond.  Chaucer.  A  Bibliographi- 
cal Manual,  1908.  Special  articles  concerned  with  the  Second 
Sun's  Tale  arc:  E.  Kolbing,  Engl.  Stud.  I,  215-29,  E.  Kocppel, 
Anglia,  xiv,  -2-27-33,  F.  Holthausen,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr. 
lxxxvii,  265-73,  and  C.  Brown,  Mod.  Phil,  ix,  1-16.  See  also 
R.  K.  Root,  The  Poetry  of  Chaucer,  1906,  pp.  277-80. 

Pages  -24.5-47.  Christina.  MS.  Arundel  168,  ed.  Horst- 
mann,  Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  183-90.  See  Gerould,  Mod. 
Lang.  Notes,  xxix,  129-33. 

Page  -248.  Virion  of  Tundale.  MSS.  Advocates'  Lihr.  19.  3.  1, 
Cott.  Calig.  A.  II,  Royal  17.  B.  XLIII,  Ashmole  1491.  Ed. 
A.  Wagner,  Tundale;  das  mc.  Gedicht  iiber  die  Vision  des  Tun- 
dalus.  1893.  Edinburgh  MS.  had  been  previously  ed.  by 
\Y.  B.  D.  D.  Turnbull,  The  Visions  of  Tundale,  1843.  See  A. 
Wagner,  Visio  Tnugdali,  1882,  and  Anglia,  xx,  452-62;  E. 
Peters,  Die  Vision  des  Tnugdalus;  ein  Beitrag  zur  Kultur- 
geecMchte  des  Mittelalters,  1895.  St.  Cuthbert.  MS.  Castle 
Howard,  ed.  J.  T.  Fowler,  Life  of  St.  Cuthbert.  1891  (Surtees 
Soc.  87).  See  E.  Kolbing,  Engl.  Stud,  xix,  121-25,  H.  Less- 
mann,  Engl.  Stud,  xxm,  345-65,  xxiv,  176-95. 

Pages  249-51.  St.  Robert  of  Knaresborough.  MS.  owned  by 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle  (in  1878),  ed.  H.  J.  T.  Drury,  The  Metri- 
cal Life  of  St.  Robert  of  Knaresborough,  1824  (Rozb.  Club). 
Another  life  in  MS.  Harl.  3775.  St.  Alexis.  MS.  Cott.  Titus  A. 
XXVI,  ed  Furnivall,  Adam  Davie's  6  Dreams,  1878  (E.  E.  T.  S. 
(!!»-.  pp.  17-79,  and  Horstmann,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  i.ix, 
96  101. 

Page  .'■'.-'.  TheophUiu.  MS.  Rawl.  poet.  225,  ed.  W.  Heuser, 
Engl.  stud,  xxxn,  1  29  (1903). 

Page  253.  Robert  of  Sicily.  MSS.  Vernon,  Trin.  Coll.  Oxford 
.-.7.  Harl.  525,  Harl.  L701,Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  If  H.  38,Jj  IV.  9, 
Cajus  Coll.  Camb.  ITt.  Ed.  W.  C.  Haslitt,  Remains  qf  the  Early 
Popular  Poetry  qf  England,  isui  I860,  I,  270-288  (from  two 


370  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

MSS.  only),  Horstmann,  Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  209-19 
(a  mixed  text  from  first  five  MSS.),  Arch.  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr. 
lxii,  416-31  (from  last  three  MSS.),  R.  Nuck,  Roberd  of  Cisyle, 
1887.  The  Trental  of  St.  Gregory.  MSS.  Advocates'  Libr.  19.  3. 1 
Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Kk  I.  6.  Former  ed.  W.  B.  D.  D.  Turnbull, 
The  Visions  of  Tundale,  1843,  and  K.  D.  Biilbring,  Anglia,xm, 
301-09;  the  latter  by  A.  Kaufmann,  Trentalle  Sancti  Gregorii, 
1889,  pp.  44-49. 

Pages  254-56.  John  Audelay.  See  J.  E.  Wulfing,  Der  Dichter 
John  Audelay  in  Anglia,xvm,  175-217  (1896).  MS.  Douce  302. 
Vision  of  Paul,  ed.  R.  Morris,  An  Old  English  Miscellany,  1872 
(E.  E.  T.  S.  49),  pp.  210-22.  De  tribus  Regibus  Mortuis,  ed.  W. 
Storck  and  R.  Jordan,  Engl.  Stud,  xliii,  177-88. 

Pages  256-66.  Lydgate.  Best  account  of  Lydgate's  life  and 
works  in  introduction  to  J.  Schick,  Lydgate's  Temple  of  Glass, 
1891  (E.  E.  T.  S.  LX).  Useful  but  perhaps  unnecessarily  faulty 
is  H.  N.  MacCracken's  The  Lydgate  Canon,  1908,  which  may  be 
most  conveniently  consulted  in  the  introduction  of  his  The 
Minor  Poems  of  John  Lydgate,  1911  (E.  E.  T.  S.  CVII).  The 
Life  of  Our  Lady.  MSS.  Arundel  66,  168,  Sloane  1785,  1825, 
Harl.  629,  1304,  2382,  3362,  3952,  4011,  4260,  5272,  Cott.  App. 
VIII,  Addit.  19252,  19432,  Ashmole  39,  59,  Bodley  75,  120, 
Rawl.  poet.  140,  Hatton  73,  St.  John's  Coll.  Oxford  56,  Corp. 
Chr.  Coll.  Oxford  61,  237,  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Mm  VI.  15,  Kk  I. 
13,  Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  R.  3.  21,  R.  3.  22,  Cajus  Coll.  Camb.  230, 
Lambeth  344,  Advocates'  Libr.  Edin.  Jac.  V.  7,  Soc.  of  Anti- 
quaries 134,  Cockerell,  Cambridge.  (The  Armes  MS.  listed  by 
MacCracken  proved  to  be  a  modern  copy.)  Ed.  Caxton  1484, 
Redman  1531,  C.  E.  Tame,  Early  English  Religious  Literature, 
1871  (edition  destroyed  by  fire,  but  copy  in  Brit.  Mus.).  Por- 
tions printed  in  The  Bannatyne  MS.,  1873-79  (Hunterian  Soc), 
and  Turnbull,  The  Visions  of  Tundale,  1843.  Announced  for  the 
E.  E.  T.  S.  by  G.  Fiedler.  St.  Margaret.  MSS.  Cosin's  Libr. 
Durham  V.  II.  14,  Harl.  367,  1704,  2382,  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  LI 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  371 

Y.  IS,  Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  R.  3,  20,  Bodley  GSG.  Ed.  from  Dur- 
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MacCracken,  Minor  Poems,  pp.  173-92.  St.  Clotilda.  MS. 
Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  R.  3.  20,  ed.  R.  Brotanck,  Die  eiujl.  Masken- 
rpide,  1902,  pp.  317-19.  St.  Edmund.  MSS.  Harl.  2278,  Ash- 
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Univ.  Libr.  Ee  II.  15,  Tanner  317,  all  in-edited.  St.  AJban. 
MSS.  Lansdowne  099,  Trin.  Coll.  Oxford  38,  Phillippa  82!)9. 
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29729.  Ed.  from  Harl.  by  Halliwell,  work  cited,  pp.  95-103;  from 
Trin.,  with  variants,  by  MacCracken,  pp.  35-43.  St.  Petronilla. 
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Poetica,  1866  B3,  v.  Its  t!»  (Chetham  Soc).  Calendar.  MSS. 
Harl.  1706,  4011,  Douce  229,322,  Rawl.  108,  Lambeth  878, 
Longleal  258.  Ed.  from  Harl.  mil.  Douce  322,  bawl.  108 
by  Horstmann,  Arch.f.  d.  stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  \.\\\.  1 1 1  ::."■  1888  . 
from  Rawl.  108  hy  A.  Clark,  The  English  Register  of  Godstow, 
1905  ll  (E.  E.  T.  S.  L29,  130,  it-'',  pp.  13  24;  from  all  by 
M  .( !racken,  pp.  363  ~<>. 


372  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Pages  266-71.  John  Capgrave.  For  life  see  introductions  to 
F.  Hingeston-Randolph,  The  Book  of  the  Illustrious  Henries, 
1858  (Rolls  Ser.  7),  F.  J.  Furnivall,  The  Life  of  St.  Katharine  of 
Alexandria.  By  John  Capgrave,  1893  (E.  E.  T.  S.  100),  and  J.  J. 
Munro,  John  Capgrave 's  Lives  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Gilbert  of 
Sempringham,  1910  (E.  E.  T.  S.  140).  St.  Catharine.  MSS. 
Arundel  20, 168,  396,  and  Rawl.  poet.  118  (formerly  Rawl.  116). 
Ed.  as  above  from  last  two.  St.  Norbert.  MS.  Phillipps  (in  Cap- 
grave's  own  hand).  Specimens  printed  by  J.  J.  Munro,  work 
cited,  pp.  xii-xiv. 

Page  271.  St.  Dorothy.  MSS.  Harl.  5272  and  Arundel  168. 
Ed.  from  former  (with  variants)  by  Horstmann,  Sammlung 
altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  191-97.  See  J.  M.  Peterson,  The  Dorothea 
Legend,  1910. 

Page  272.  St.  Erasmus.  MSS.  and  editions:  Harl.  2382, 
Horstmann,  Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  198-200;  Bedford, 
work  cited,  pp.  201-03;  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Dd  I.  1,  Horstmann, 
Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxii,  413-16;  Rawl.  poet.  34,  in-edited. 

Pages  272,  273.  The  Holy  Blood  of  Hales.  MS.  Royal  17.  C. 
XVII,  ed.  Horstmann,  Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  275-81.  See  F.  A. 
Gasquet,  Henry  VIII  and  the  English  Monasteries,  2d  ed.  1889, 
II,  536-41. 

Pages  273-75.  St.  Wulfhad.  MS.  Cott.  NeroC.  XII,  ed.  Horst- 
mann, Altengl.  Leg.  n.f.,  pp.  308-14.  See  Dugdale's  Monasti- 
con,  2d  ed.  vi,  230-31. 

Pages  275,  276.  St.  Editlia  and  St.  Etheldreda.  MS.  Cott. 
Faustina  B.  Ill,  ed.  G.  H.  Black,  Chronicon  Vilodunense,  1830, 
and  Horstmann,  S.  Editha  sive  Chronicon  vilodunense,  1883.  See 
W.  Heuser,  Die  men.  Legenden  von  St.  Editha  und  St.  Etheldreda, 
1887;  R.  Fischer,  Anglia, xi,  175-218;  and  F.  Liebermann,  Neue 
Arch.  d.  Gesellschaftf.  altere  deutsche  Geschichtskunde,  xviii,237. 

Pages  277-79.  Wade's  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  MS.  Corp. 
Chr.  Coll.  Camb.  298,  ed.  Horstmann,  Engl.  Stud,  in,  409-69 
(1880).   Bradshaw's  Life  of  St.  Werburghe.   Ed.  from  Pynson's 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  373 

print  by  E.  Hawkins,  The  Holy  Lyfe  and  History  of  Saynt  U'er- 
burge,  1848  (Chetham  Soc.),  and  Horstmann,  The  Life  of  Saint 
Wertmrge,  1887  (E.  E.  T.  S.  88). 

Pages  280,  281.  Gospel  of  Mcodemus.  MSS.  I.  Pepya  2498; 
II.  Salisbury  Cath.  39,  Addit.  16165;  III.  Egerton  2658,  Stony- 
hurst  Coll.  B.  XLIII,  Bodl.  207;  IV.  Worcester  Cath.  172;  V. 
Harl.  149;  VI.  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Mm  I.  29;  VII.  Prints:  Julian 
Notary,  London,  1507,  AVynkyn  de  Worde,  1509,  etc.  See  W.  H. 
Hulme.  The  Middle-English  Harroicing  of  Hell  and  Gospel  of 
Mcodemus.  1908  (E.  E.  T.  S.    C),  pp.  xxxii-lx. 

Page  282.  Life  of  Adam  and  Eve.  MS.  Vernon,  ed.  Horst- 
mann,  Sammlung  altengl.  Leg.,  pp.  220-27.  The  Three  Kings  of 
Cologne.  MSS.  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Ee  IV.  32.  Cott.  Titus  A. 
XXV.  Royal  18.  A.  X,  Harl.  1704,  Rawl.  B.  149.  Ed.  from  first 
three,  Horstmann,  The  Three  Kings  of  Cologne,  1886  (E.  E.  T. 
S.  85). 

Page  283.  St.  AntJwny  of  Egypt.  MS.  Royal  17.  C.  XVII,  ed. 
Horstmann,  Anglia,  iv,  109-38  (1881).  See  F.  Holthauaen, 
Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxxxvii,  60-64. 

Page  284.  Staunton's  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory.  MSS.  Royal 
17.  B.  XLIII,  Addit.  34193.  Ed.  from  former  by  G.  P.  Krapp, 
The  Legend  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  1900,  pp.  54-77.  J'isions 
of  St.  Bridget.  MSS.  Lambeth  432  and  Garrett  Collection, 
Princeton  University.  In-edited.  Virion  of  a  Monk  of  Eyruham. 
Printed  by  Macklinia  C  1482.    Edited  therefrom  by  Arbcr. 

Pages  284,  285.  Capgrave's prose  lives.  MSS.  Addit.  80704, 
Cott.  Yit.-I.  I).  XV  (latter  a  fragment).  Ed.  J.  J.  Munro,  John 
Capgrave's  Lives  of  St. .  1  ugusHne  am!  St.  Gilbert  <>f  Sempringham, 
[910  (E.  E.  T.  S.  140). 

Page  286.  Mary  Magdalene.  MS.  Durham  5.  2.  14,  ed.  J. 
Zupitza,  Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  ,i.  ,,.  Spr.  kci,  20?  24  (1808).  St. 
Dorothea.  I.  MS.  Lamb.  432,  ed.  Horstmann,  Anglia,  m, 
::.':,  58  ihsid;  II.  MSS.  Addit.  11565 and 85208,  Lambeth  72, 
.dl  in-edited.    III.    MS.  Royal  2.  A.  Will,  in-edited.    S<    I' 


374  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Butler,  Legenda  Aurea,  1899,  and  J.  M.  Peterson,  The  Dorothea 
Legend,  1910. 

Pages  287,  288.  St.  Jerome.  MS.  Lamb.  432,  ed.  Horstmann, 
Anglia,  ill,  328-60.  Fragments  of  Gascoigne's  Life  in  MS. 
Magdalen  Coll.  Oxford  93.  The  Lyfe  of  St.  Bridget.  Printed  by 
Pynson,  1516,  ed.  J.  H.  Blunt,  The  Mirroure  of  oure  Ladye, 
1873  (E.  E.  T.  S.  XIX),  pp.  xlvii-lix.  Life  of  St.  Catharine. 
MS.  Digby  172,  in-edited. 

Pages  289,  290.  St.  Elizabeth  of  Spalbeck,  etc.  MS.  Douce  114, 
ed.  Horstmann,  Anglia,  viii,  102-96  (1885).  Source  of  St.  Eliza- 
beth in  Catalogus  Codicum  Hagiographicorum  Bibliothecae  Regiae 
Bruxellensis,  n,  362-78  (1889),  as  see  Gerould,  Anglia,  n.f. 
xxvii,  356-58. 

Pages  290,  291.  Caxton's  St.  Wenefred,  re-edited  Horstmann, 
Anglia  ill,  295-313.  His  St.  Catharine  of  Siena,  re-edited  Horst- 
mann, Arch.f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spr.  lxxvi,  33-112,  265-314,  353- 
400.  Wynkyn  de  Worde's  St.  Ursula,  reprinted  in  The  Legend  of 
St.  Ursula  and  the  Virgin  Martyrs  of  Cologne,  1869  (no  editor 
named);  The  Lyfe  of  St.  Brandan  in  T.  Wright,  St.  Brandan, 
1844  (Percy  Soc.  14).  As  to  latter,  see  G.  Schirmer,  Zur  Bren- 
danus-Legende,  1888.  The  Martiloge,  ed.  F.  Procter  and  E.  S. 
Dewick,  1893  (Henry  Bradshaw  Soc.  HI). 

CHAPTER  VIII 

saints'  lives  in  drama 

Page  295.  As  to  Geoffrey's  St.  Catharine,  see  Matthew  Paris, 
Gesta  Abbatum  S.  Albani,  ed.  H.  T.  Riley,  1867,  i,  73  (Rolls  Ser. 
28).  For  William  Fitzstephen's  reference  see  J.  C.  Robertson, 
Materials  for  the  History  of  Thomas  Becfcct,  1875-85,  in,  9 
(Rolls  Ser.  67). 

Pages  297-99.  The  best  list  of  early  dramatic  presentations 
yet  prepared  may  be  found  in  E.  K.  Chambers,  The  Mediaeval 
Stage,  1903,  n,  329-406,  which  includes  the  material  found  in 
earlier  lists. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  375 

Pages  301-09.  York  Plays,  ed.  L.  T.  Smith,  1885;  Cheater 
Plays,  ed.T.  Wright,  18-43-47  (Shakespeare  Soc.), and  II.  Deim- 
ling,  1892  (E.  E.  T.  S.  LXII,  Pt.  i  only);  Towneley  Plays,  ed. 

(anonymously  for  Surtees  Soc),  1830,  by  G.  England  and  A.  W. 
Pollard,  1897  (E.  E.  T.  S.  LXXI);  Ludus  Coventriae.ed.  J.  O 
Halliwell,  1841  (Shakespeare  Soc).   As  to  subject-matter  and 

sources,  see  O.  Hettrich,  Studien  zu  <lcr  Yuri:  Plays,  lSK(i;  P. 
Kamann,  Anglia,x,  189-2-20;  H.  Ungemach,  Die  Quellcn  dcrfiinf 
ersten  Chester  Plays,  1890  (Miinchcner  Beit.  I);  E.  Falke,  Die 
Quellen  des  sogenannten  Ludit.s  Coventriae.  1908;  M.  II.  Dodds, 
Mod.  Lang.  Review,  ix, 79-91  (1914);  E.  L.  Swcnson,.!//  Inquiry 
into  the  Composition  and  Structure  of  Ludus  Coventriae  (with  a 
Note  on  the  Home  of  L.  C.  by  II.  Craig),  1914  {I'nir.  of  Minnesota 
Stud.  I).  For  the  Cornish  Plays  sec  E.  Norris,  The  Ancient 
Cornish  Drama,  1859.  The  Croxton  Play  is  accessible  in  J.  M. 
Manly,  Specimens  of  Pre-Shakcspcarean  Drama,  i.  239-76 
(1897),  and  O.  Waterhouse,  The  Non-Cycle  Mystery  Plays.  1909 
(E.  E.  T.  S.  CIV;.  The  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  and  Mary  Mag- 
dalene can  be  read  in  F.  J.  Furnivall,  The  Digby  Plays,  1890 
(E.  E.  T.  S.  LXX)  the  former  also  in  Manly,  work  cited.  The 
Life  and  Repcntauncc  of  Mary  Magdalene,  ed.  F.  I.  Carpenter, 
1902.  As  to  the  connection  of  Massinger's  Tlw  Virgin  Martyr 
with  legend,  see  J.  M.  Peterson,  The  Dorothea  Legend,  and  Ger- 
ould,  Engl.  Stud,  xuv,  257-00. 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE   REFORMATION   AND   SINCE 

F.  A.  Gasquet,  Henry  VIII  and  the  English  Monasteries,  1889, 

gives  much  valuable  information  a-^  to  the  state  of  affairs  that 

caused  the  overthrow  of  the  type.  T.  Corser,  CaUectanea  Anglo- 
Poetica,  I860  83  (Chetham  Soc.),  andJ.  Gillow,  A  Literary  and 
I;  graphical  History,  or  Biographical  Dictionary  of  the  English 
Catholics,  1885  95,  are  useful  sources  and  guides  with  regard  to 


376  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Catholic  writers  and  their  works.  The  articles  in  the  Diet.  Nat. 
Biography  are,  for  the  most  part,  untrustworthy  in  detail.  For- 
rest's Theophilus  has  been  reprinted  by  F.  Ludorff,  Anglia,  vn, 
60-115  (1884),  but  see  W.  S.  Logeman,  Anglia,  x,  533-41.  The 
Lives  of  Women  Saints,  etc.,  are  in  MS.  Stowe  949,  ed.  Horst- 
mann,  1886  (E.  E.  T.  S.  86).  For  the  author  see  Horstmann, 
Nova  Legenda  Anglie,  I,  x.  Roscarrock's  Lives  of  the  English 
Saints  are  in  MS.  Camb.  Univ.  Libr.  Addit.  3041.  Identified  in 
1892  by  F.  J.  H.  Jenkinson  and  C.  Horstmann,  and  again  in 
1897  by  Mgr.  E.  Nolan.  Life  of  St.  Christina  printed  by  Horst- 
mann, Nova  Legenda,  n,  532-37.  Thomas  Robinson's  The  Life 
and  Death  of  Mary  Magdalene  is  found  in  MSS.  Harl.  6211  and 
Rawl.  41.  Ed.  H.  O.  Sommer,  1887,  and  1899  (latter  ed.  for  E. 
E.  T.  S.  LXXVIII). 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ts,  Lircs  of  the,  by  Elede,  100, 

106. 
Abdias,  123. 
Abercius,  St.,  52. 
Abgar,  48. 

I  Sanctorum,  71,  75,  124. 
Acta  Sinoera,  28. 
Act<  <  and  Monuments,  316. 
Adam,    biographer   of   St.    Hugh, 

144,  145. 
Ada  et  1.    •.  Vita,  218,  I'm1. 
Adam  and  Eve,   Auch.   MS.,  216, 

L'ls  219;  <  'anticum  d<  <  real 

2  .1  235;    Vernon    MS.,   2S2;  in 

<  'uriiish  plays,  302. 
A<l:minan,  95-97. 
Adela,  Queen,  136. 
Adelard,  109. 

.r,  138. 
J!. 1. 1.  .  103    104,  146. 
Alfred,  22,  59,  92,  106,  110,  111, 

117. 
sElfrcd,  Life  of,  by  Asscr,  127. 
.Klfric,  1,  19  n.,  90,  107,  108,  112, 

115-122,  123,  124,  125,  137,  139, 

151,  167,  337. 
JEthelnuer,  1 17. 

Iweard,  l  L8. 
fithelwold,  St.,  :;7,  107,  114,  110, 

lis;  Vita  by  MUric,  lis,  ii>i. 
Athelwold. 

Afra.  .-t..    15. 

1  y  Bokenam    L91. 

!:-.   I  88    l^-'t. 
101  ;  by  Lady  E.  1  alkland,  324. 
Aidan,  St.,  ."-:.  ( 
Ailred,  St.,  ill. 
Alban,  St..  -jj.  :::,.  44,  55  56,  101, 

1  1  1.    ,S. .    A ul .an. 


Alban,    St.:    by    .i:ifru\    120;    by 

Lydgate,  263  264;  The  Tra 

of  St.  Albans,  by  Shirley,  310. 
Alcuin,  92,  97,  105-inii. 
Aldhelmi,    Vita,    by    William    of 

Malmesbury,  142. 
Alexander  ill,  133. 
Alexias,  ■  - 

Alexis,  St.,  36,  49,  227,  328. 
Alexis,  St.:  ]' i,  de,  130;  Northern, 
228;  in.Yo.  Eng.  Horn.  <  oil., 

l'l'7;  Southern,  232;  in  Scot.  /<</. 

loll.,  232;  late  11th  cent.,  232; 

15th  cent.,  251-252. 
Alford,  P.,  329. 
Alfred  of  Beverley,  278. 
Alkmund,  St.,  185. 
All  Sai/tts  Day,  in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  1 56. 
All  Souls'  Day,  in  So.  Eng.  Leg., 

156-157. 
Allen,  Cardinal,  320. 
Alphabet  of  Tales,  An,  201. 
Alphabetum  Narration  um,  L'tu  ,  227. 
Aljihege,  St.,  in  So.  Eng.  l.uj.,  1G0. 
Ambrose,  St.,  195. 
Amis  and  Amiiotm,  51. 
Amphibalus,  35,  264. 
Analogy    in    medieval     sermons, 

139,  165. 
Anastasius,  St.,  102. 

,  208. 
Andreas,  7<;,  77,  85  89. 
Andrew,  St.,  B9. 

.1 1, i!i i  a-,  in  Blickling  llom.,  i 
Andrew  and  Matthew,  Ad    of,  s"'. 

87. 
Anger  <>f  St.  I  i id<    v  ide'  ,  L36. 

:  1 . 
Anglo-Nonnau    legends,    131    139, 


380 


INDEX 


Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  93. 
Anna,  St.,  by  Bokenam,  191. 
Anne,  St.,  Daughters  of  (lost),  191. 
Anonymity  in  mediaeval  literature, 

234. 
Anselm,  St.,  lives  by  Eadmer,  141; 

Vita  by  John  of  Salisbury,  142. 
Anthony,  St.,  of  Egypt,  283-287. 
Antichrist,    Anglo-Norman    poem, 

137. 
Antioch,  certain  virgin  in,  195. 
Antiquitates  Apostolical,  331. 
Aphrodite,  45,  46. 
Apollinaria,  St.,  45. 
Apostles,  Fates  of  the,  64,  76-78. 
Apostles,   Legends  of:  32,   33-34; 

by  ^Elfric,  119,  123;  in  Scot.  Leg. 

Coll.,  178;  in  Cursor  Mundi,  200. 
Apostolici,  331. 
Apostolorum,  Sortes,  33,  77. 
Aries,  Council  of,  56. 
Arnold  of  Liege,  201,  227. 
Arrek,  269-270. 
Arthur,  21,  22,  40. 
Arundel,  Countess  of,  136. 
Asser,  127. 
Athanasius,  St.,  25. 
Athelwold,  St.,  in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  160. 
Auban,  Vie  de  seint,  135,  136. 
Audelay,  John,  254-256. 
Audrey,  St.,  276,  278.    See  Ethel- 

dred. 
Audrey,    St.,    Anglo-Norman    life, 

135. 
Augustine,  St.,  of  Canterbury,  57, 

86,  94,  110. 
Augustine,  St.,  of  Canterbury:  Vita 

by  Goscelin,  141;  St.  Austin  at 

Compton,  264-265. 
Augustine,  St.,  of  Hippo,  38,  189, 

195,  255,  287. 
Augustine,  St.,  of  Hippo,  284-285. 
Austin,  St*,,  see  Augustine,  St. 
Authentic  passions,  27-28. 

B,  author  of  Vita  S.  Dunstani,  108- 
109. 


Bacon,  Robert,  144. 
Bale,  John,  300,  308,  314. 
Ballads,  211,  216,  223. 
Barbara,  St.,  36,  37,  44,  192. 
Barbour,  John,  178. 
Baring-Gould,  S.,  344-345. 
Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  46—47. 
Barlaam  and  Josaphat:    mid- 14th 

cent.,  "229. 
Barnabas,  St.,  in  Scot.  Leg.  Coll., 

180. 
Baronius'  Annates,  323. 
Bartholomew,  St.,  33. 
Bartholomew  of  Glanville,  280. 
Basil,  St.,  by  iElfric,  119. 
Battle  of  Brunanburh,  93. 
Beatrice,  St.,  201. 
Beauchamp,  Thomas  de,  244-245, 

246. 
Bede,  6,  24,  50,  51,  55,  58,  60,  61, 

78,  80,  97,  98-103,  104,  105,  106, 

110,  111,  114,  116, 119,  131,  142, 

156,  201,  278. 
Beleth,  John,  186. 
Benedict,  St.,  by  iElfric,  119;  Life 

and    Miracles    of,   by   Fursden, 

329. 
Benedict  Biscop,  57,  98,  100. 
Benedictine  revival,  111-112,  114, 

116,  128. 
Beowulf,  21,  42,  58-59,  60,  70,  84, 

85,  86,  87,  88  n.,  115,  125. 
Berkeley,  Lord,  281. 
Bernard,  St.,  147,  186,  195. 
Bertrand  of  Pontigny,  19,  144. 
Beves  of  Hampton,  319. 
Biography  and  legend,  3,  4,  7,  24- 

25. 
Birinus,  St.,  57. 

Birth  of  Mary  and  Christ,  The,  216. 
Bitter  Withy,  The,  216. 
Blasius,  St.,  37. 

Blasius,  St.,  in  Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  181. 
Blickling  Homilies,  2,  85,  112-114. 
Blood  of  Hales,  The  Holy,  272-273. 
Bokenam,    Osbern,    188-194,   202, 

266,  272,  287,  305. 


INDEX 


381 


Bo&andista,  3,  124,  341,  345. 

Book  of  Martyrs,  316. 

Bouhours,  Dominick,  330. 

Bowsere,  Lady,  Camtesae  d'Eu, 
192. 

Boson,  Nicole,  136. 

Bradahaw,  Henry,  277-279. 

Brampton,  Gaudy,  330. 

Bran.  Blessed,  55. 

Brandon,  St.,  see  Brendan,  St. 

Bregvrin,  St.,  \'ita  by  Eadmer,  141. 

Brendan,  St.:  Vie  de,  by  Benoist, 
135,  136;  in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  168; 
from  Golden  Legend,  291. 

Bridget,  St.,  38,  298-299. 

Bridget,  St.  (of  Sweden):  Saluta- 
tion to,  255  256;  Visions  of,  284; 
I.  if,  of,  288. 

Britannia  Sanc.ta,  336,  337. 

Bn.wn,  C.  F.,  64,  71,  240. 

Bruce,  by  Barbour,  178. 

Bruce,  J.  D.,  134,  217. 

Buckland,  Robert  (or  Ralph).  322. 

Buddha,  17. 

Bunyan,  68. 

Burgh,  Thomas  191,  193. 

Burton,  E.  H.,  332. 

Burton,  John,  195. 

Bury,  J.  B.,  2,  346. 

Butler,  All. an,  1,333,  337-340,  344. 

Byron,  Lord,  347. 

CcBoUia,  Acta  S.,  241. 

( issdmon,  69,  « •  1 . 

1         rhia  of  Aries,  13. 

■dar,    by    I.ydgate,   258,   266. 

See  Atenolol/. 
Calendars,   13,  36,  268,  266.    See 

alartyrologies,  and  Menolofries. 
rbury    Tale*,    The,    239-244, 

316. 

.  de  Creation* ,  see  Adam 

and  Eve. 
Capgrave,    John,    188,    198,   206- 

271    277  .'-  i   286,  287,  2 
Carpenter,  P.  I     307. 
Castissima,  St.,  36. 


Castor  and  Pollux,  44. 
Catalogue  Sanctorum,  292.  • 
Catharine,    St.,    of    Alexandria,    6, 

i'."..  27,  34,  37,  40  41,  208,  209, 

219,  232,  270.  298,  311. 
Catharine  of  Alexandria,   St.:   by 

Bokenam,  191;  early  13th  cent., 

208-210;  Auch.  MS.,  216,  219 

220;  later   14th   cent.,  232:   by 

Capgrave,    269   271;    15th    cent. 

prose,  282  n.;  St.  Albans  play, 

296. 
Catharine,  St.,  of  Siena,  15. 
Catharini .  St.,  of  si,  no:  from  Beau- 
vale,  290;  Cazton's,  290  291. 
Catharine,  St.  (of  Sweden),  Lift  of, 

288. 
Catherine    d' Alexandrie,    by    Cle- 

mence,  136. 
Catholic  emancipat  ion,  340. 
Catholic  Homilies,  by  JSlfric,  1 18— 

119. 
Cave,  William,  331. 
Cazton,    William.    1S7,    196,    197, 

260,  2St»,  290   291. 
Cecilia,  St.,  34,  192,  243. 
Cicilia,  St.:  by  Robert  de  Grot  ham, 

139;     by     Bokenam,      191;     by 

Chaucer,  240-244,  245   246. 
Cehstin,  St.,  228. 
C,!,.  I  in,  228-229,  252. 
Ceolfrid,  .",7,  88,  99,  100. 
Chad.  St.,  38,  275. 
Chad,  St.:  (10th  cent,  prose),  111; 

by  Bokenam,  190. 
Challoner,  Richard,  321,  330,  335- 

17,  343. 
ChaUoner,   The  Life  and   Times  of 

!■;■  hop, 
Chambers,  E.  K.,  305. 
<  lharlemagne,  27.;. 
Charles  1,  326. 
Chaucer,  1,  178,  189,  192,  226,233, 

239  -ii.  246  246,  266,  267,  269, 

271,  280. 
Cht  '■■'  Play  .  301   302. 
Chettle,  Henry,  308. 


382 


INDEX 


Christ,  Apocryphal  legends  of,  32, 

38,  135,  200,  215-216,  226.    See 

Jesus. 
Christ,  by  Cynewulf,  64,  65. 
Christ,  Life  of:  with  So.  Eng.  Leg., 

163;  by  author  of  Scot.  Leg.  Coll., 

177,  179;  by  Crathorne,  335. 
Christ  and  Satan,  91. 
Christian  Year,  347. 
Christina,  St.:  by  Bokenam,   191, 

245;  in  No.  Eng.  Horn.  Coll.,  245; 

in  Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  245;  by  Wm. 

Paris,  244-247. 
Christina  Mirabilis,  2,  19. 
Christina  Mirabilis,  289-290. 
Christopher,  St.,  6,  37,  38,  50,  235- 

236. 
Christopher,  St.:  O.  E.  prose,  125; 

verse,  137.5-1400,  235-236. 
Christ's  Victorie  and  Triumph,  326. 
Chronicle  of  England,  267. 
Chronicle  of  Scotland,  239. 
Church,  R.  W.,  342. 
Cicero,  11. 
Cistercians,  147. 
Clara,  St.,  38. 
Classes  of  saints,  17. 
Clemence  of  Barking,  136. 
Clement,  St.,  of  Ancyra,  37. 
Clement,  St.:  by  ^Elfric,  119;  in  So. 

Eng.  Leg.,  158. 
Clifford,  Henry,  Earl  of  Cumber- 
land, 325. 
Clotilda,  St.,  262,  299. 
Clugnet,  L.,  45. 
Cockayne,  O.,  210. 
Coffin,  R.  A.,  342. 
Collectanea  Anglo-Poetica,  330. 
Collections  of    legends  in  French, 

137-139,  151. 
Columba,  St.,  57,  95-97,  110. 
Columboe,  Vita  S.,  95-97. 
Columban,  St.,  37,  43. 
Commody  of  the  moste  vertuous  and 

godlye  Susanna,  308. 
Conquest,  effect  of,  132,  205-200. 
Conquest  of  Granada,  311. 


Constantine,  56,  70,  71,  72,  73. 

Contes  devots,  136,  139,  185. 

Convention  in  legends,  28-29 ,  36-38. 

Corneille,  311. 

Cornish  plays,  302. 

Corpus  Christi,  173. 

Corpus  Christi,  Procession  of,  265- 

266. 
Corser,  T.,  330. 
Corset,  138. 

Cosmo  and  Damian,  Sts.,  35,  44. 
Craigie,  W.  A.,  225. 
Crashaw,  Richard,  327-328. 
Crathorne,  William,  334-335. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  21. 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  313,  315. 
Cross,  Discovery  of  the  Sacred,  O.  E. 

prose,  124. 
Cross  legends,  44,  70-76,  123-124, 

199-200,  219,  235,  282,  302. 
Cross-Wood,  Legend  of  the,  199-200. 
Croxton  Play  of  the  Sacrament,  304- 

305. 
Crucifixion,  303. 
Cuminia,  35. 
Cummian,  96. 

Cursor  Mundi,  199-200,  213,  219. 
Cuthbert,  St.,  6,  24. 
Cuthbert,  St.:  by  JEUric,  119;  early 

15th  cent.,  248-249. 
Cuthberti,    Vita    S.,    by    monk    of 

Lindisfarne,   100;  by  Bede,   80, 

99-100. 
Cynegils  of  Wessex,  57. 
Cynewulf,  2,  62-79,  81,  84-85,  86, 

88,  89,  90,  92,  124,  209,  233. 
Cyprian,  St.,  27. 
Cyril,  St.,  287. 

Dalgairns,  J.  B.,  342. 
Danae,  44. 
Daniel,  90. 

Dante,  206,  218,  240,  244. 
Dawson,  Edward,  324. 
Dawson,  Thomas,  332-333. 
De  Antiquitate  .  .  .  Urbis  Chestrice, 
277. 


INDEX 


383 


■  onsuctudinc  Monachorum,  by 

£thelwold,  lis. 

•tis  Pontificum,  142. 
De  Greeti*  Regum  Anglorum,  141- 

1  I-'. 
1  >■    Infantia  SaJxatorie,  2 1  .~> — U 1 1 > . 
1>-    Laudibtu  Virginum,  by  Eald- 

holm,  97  '.is. 
De  Ligno  Sanctic  Cruris,  219. 
!)■  Natura  Rerutn,  by  Isidore,  15G; 

by  Bede,  156. 
De  Proprietatibua  Rerum,  280. 
De  Sanctis  Anglice,  198. 
I  >■    trihua  Rcaibus  Mortuis,  254. 
1).    Vita  <t  Morte  Sanctorum,  200. 
Dedication  of   Legends,  136,  191- 

192,  262. 
Definition  of  the  legend,  5. 
Dekkcr,  Thomas,  309. 
Delehaye,  Hippolyte,  3,  6,  42. 
Denis,  St.,  e«  Dionysius. 
Descensus  Christi  ad  Infernos,  91, 

211. 
])<■  V.n  .  A.  T.,  347. 
Dialogiu     betvrix    a    Seculer    and 

Fnre,  T 
/-  aloffuea  of  Gregory,  201. 
I  >i  oyahis,  Bt.,  37. 
1'    >nysius,  Si.,  by  /Elfric,  119. 
]  Dioscuri,  44. 

Diversity  of  legends,  1-3. 
Dobschuts,  E.  von.  282. 
Dominic,  Bt.,  •":;.  149. 

"■r    Dorothea),    St.:    by 

Bokenam,    191 :  Bchool  of  <  'ai>- 

grave,   271-272;    prose   transla- 

tioi  --7:  7  In   Virgin  Mar- 

tl/r. 

I  touay,  influeno  "f.  320. 

Doubli  '  i,  36,  36. 

Jjr.-tina,    legends     approximating, 

211.  228  229,  262  i 
hrmn,  of  ih.  Rood,  90  91. 
I  I 

Drihthehn,  l  i  von  "/,  1 19. 
I  i     den,  John,  311. 

Dll'-h-    uc,   I. 


Dugdale,  274. 

Dunstan,  Bt.,  38,  114,  128,  146, 
L60. 

Dunstan,  St.:  Vita  by  B,  108  109; 
i  by  Adelard,  in:);  Vita  by 
1  i  <  rn.  L26;  Vita  by  Eadmer, 
141;  in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  L60;  Me- 
morials of,  by  Btubbs,  346. 

Eadmer,  141. 

Ealdhelm,  St.,  50,  58,  69,  (.»7  98, 
131,  142. 

Early  English  Text  Society,  - if.. 

Ecclesiastical  History,  by  Bede,  60i 
98  99,  mi  L03;  £lfredian trans- 
lation, 110. 

Ecclesiastical  History,  by  Eusebius, 
32,  64. 

Edgar,  King,  160. 

Editha    (or    Edith),    St.:    Vita    by 
celin,  141;  16th  cent.,  275- 
276. 

Edmund,  St.,  King:  by  .Elfric,  120; 
Anglo-Norman  lives,  135;  by 
Lydgate,  262  263;  Miracles  of, 
by  Lydgate,  264. 

Edmund,  St.,  of  Canterbury,  19, 
29,  148. 

Edmund,  St.,  ■  bury:  Anglo- 

Norman  life,  136, 136;  Latin  li 
143,  144;  in  So.  Eng.  l.<o.,  168. 

Edmund  of  Cornwall,  273. 

Edward  IV,  268. 

Edward,  St.,  239. 

Edward,  St.,  the  Confessor:  0.   E. 

verse,  93;   Anglo-Norman  lives, 

136,  L36;  Vita  by  Eadmer,  141; 

by  Ailred,  Ml. 

it,  St.,  Martyr:  in  So.   Eng. 

J.,,/..  161  ;  by  Bokenam,  190. 

Edwin,  St.,  King,  ".7.  104. 
i » * ian  anchorites,  5. 

Einenkel,  E.,  208. 

Eleanor,  Queen,  I 

Elene,  2,  64,  '•:,,  69,  70  76,  Bl 
m;.  —    124 

Eleuthi  riu  .  Pop 


384 


INDEX 


Eleutherius,  St.,  51. 

Eleven  Thousand  Virgins,  41. 

Elizabeth,   St.,   by   Bokenam,    191, 

192. 
Elizabeth  .  .  .  of  Hungary,  History 

of  St.,  329. 
Elizabeth,  St.,  of  Portugal,  324. 
Elizabeth,  St.,  of  Spalbeck,  289. 
Elizabethan  age,  316,  319. 
English     Marlyrologie,     by     John 

Watson,  321-322. 
Eosterwine,  100. 
Epic  legend,  characteristics  of  the, 

58-62. 
Epic  poetry  in  Anglia,  58-61. 
Epimenides,  44. 
Erasmus,  St.,  272. 
Erkenwald,  St.,  237-238,  248. 
Errors  in  saints'  names,  35. 
Espurgatoire  saint  Patriz,  218. 
Essay  on  Man,  69. 
Etheldred,  St.,  57.    See  Audrey. 
Etheldred,  St.,  by  ^Elfric,  120. 
Etheldreda,  St.:  15th  cent.,  275-276; 

1595,  318. 
Etienne  de  Besancon,  201. 
Etymologies  of  saints'  names,  39, 

196. 
Eudocia,  St.,  45. 
Eugenia,  St.,  45. 

Eugenia,  St.,  in  Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  183. 
Eulalia,  St.,  130. 
Euphrosyne,  St.,  36,  45. 
Euphrosyne,  St.,  229. 
Eusebius,  32,  34,  54. 
Eustace,  St.,  36,  49,  134. 
Eustace,  St.:  mid-13th  cent.,  212; 

Braintree  play,  300 ;  Sir  Placidas, 

by  Chettle,  308;  by  Partridge, 

308,  316-317. 
Evagrius,  283. 

Evangelization  of  England,  55-57. 
Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  69. 
Evidence,  disregard  of  laws  of,  20- 

21. 
Exempla,    14,   139,    172,   185,  200, 

201,  221,  227,  239,  304. 


Exodus,  61,  90. 
Expeditus,  St.,  38. 
Eynsham,  Vision  of  a  Monk  of,  145; 
15th  cent,  trans.,  284. 

Faber,  F.  W.,  342. 

Fabian,  St.,  in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  155. 

Faerie  Queene,  319. 

Faith,  St.,  192. 

Faith,  St.:  by  Bokenam,  191.    See 

Foi. 
Falkland,  Lady  Elizabeth,  324. 
Falkner,  John,  329,  332. 
Faustus,  228,  252-253. 
Felix,  St.,  of  Nola,  102. 
Felix,  St.,  of  Valois,  36. 
Felix,  St.,  of  East  Anglia,  by  Boke- 
nam, 190. 
Felix  (author  of  Vita  S.  Guthlaci), 

79,  80,  84,  105,  112. 
Fell,  Charles,  333-334. 
Festial,   by   John   Mirk,    184-188, 

247,  280,  290. 
Fiedler,  G.,  259. 
Fletcher,  Giles  and  Phineas,  326- 

327. 
Florus  of  Lyons,  102. 
Flos  Sanctorum,  324. 
Foerster,  M.,  113,  120. 
Foi,  Vie  de  ste.,  by  Simon,  136. 
Formula  in  legends,  36-38. 
Forrest,  William,  317,  318. 
Forstmann,  H.,  80  n. 
Foxe,  John,  316. 
Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi,  23  n.,  51-52, 

53,  149,  250-251. 
Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi,  158. 
Francis  of  Sales,  Life  of  St.,  334- 

335. 
Fremund,  St.,  263. 
French    influences,    129,    131-132, 

137,  138, 139,  167-168,  171,  179, 

200,205,206-207,212,215,   217, 

220,  222,  229,  232. 
French  legends  in  England,  9-10, 

131-139,  205. 
Froude,  J.  A.,  342. 


INDEX 


38^ 


Fniga  Saculi,  329. 

Fursden,  John  Cuthbert,  329. 

Furstux,  Vision  of:  by  .Flfrie,  119; 

by  Robert  deGretham,  139;  from 

Bade,  201. 

Galahad,  3S. 

Garter,  Thomas,  308. 

Gaacoigne,  Thomas,  288. 

Gasquet,  F.  A.,  315. 

Gaunyne  and  the  Green  Knight,  Sir, 
2:<7. 

Gelasius,  33. 

Q\  nesu,  90,  91. 

Genesis  B,  91. 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  35. 

GeoffreV  of  St.  Albans,  295. 

Cmrge,  St.,  6,  37,  44,  298.  310,  319. 

George,  St.:  by  Lydgate,  260-261; 
St.  George  for  England,  309-310; 
by  Heylyn,  324-325;  The  Fa- 
mous History  of,  330;  Memories 
of,  by  Dawson,  332-333. 

German,  St.,  56,  110. 

<,■    tn  Romanorum,  186. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  338. 

Gilbert,  St.,  of  Sempringham,  144. 

Gilbert,  St.,  of  Sempringham:  Vita, 
144;  by  Capgrave,  284-2M,. 

Giidaa,  55. 

Giles,  St.:  O.  E.  prose,  120;  by  Lyd- 
gate, 264-265. 

Giraldus  (  ambrensis,  142-144, 
27v 

Glory  of  0u  Martyr*,  54. 

Goethe,  253. 

(inhhn  I.rijind,  see  I .< <i< nda  Aurea. 
-.  1  in   ill. 

( tower,  John,  1 89. 

Graease,  Th.,  287. 

Grafting  of  legends,  36. 

f  '. r:i ri'l i -' >ri ,  John,  277. 

G rooming,  Catherine  Francis 
-  and,  by  Anger,  136 

.  v,  /'"/».   134,  216  217,  228, 
280. 
Gregory,  St.,  the  Gn  .'    5,  1 1   D2 


Vita  by  monk  of  Whitby,  104- 
l(i.".,    ill).   230;   Life  by  JClfric, 
119,  186,  201,  217.  228. 
Gregory,   Th,    Trental  of  St.:    14th 
<tnl.,  230-231;  15th  cent.,  253 

L'ot. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa,  52. 

Gregory,  St.,  of  Tours,  13,  43,  54, 

122;  131. 
Griffith,  Michael,  329. 
Grim,  Edward,  8. 
Griseldis,  A  History  of,  317. 
Giinter,  H.,  12,  23. 
Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  Rome, 

L'I'.S. 

Guthlac,  St.,  79-86,  S9,  256. 
Guthlac  the  Hermit,  7'.»   S2. 
Guthlaci,  Vita,  8.:  by  Felix,  79,  80, 

105;   translations  in   10th  out., 

112. 
Guthlac' s  Death,  79,  82-85,  86. 

Hadrian,  of  (  anterbury,  97. 

Hammond,  E.  P.,  260. 

Handlyng  Synne,   171,  200-201. 

Harnack,  28. 

Harrowing  of  Hell:  Junian  MS.,  91, 
92;  Exeter  Book,  91-92;  mid- 
13th  cent.,  214-215,  228,  252; 
ibid,  Auch,  MS.,  2Kb 

Hartland,  E.  S.,  44. 

Havelok  the  Dane,  220. 

Hawkins,  Henry,  329. 

Head-bearing  martyrs,  37,  51. 

Hegge  1'lan*,  301,  3<il-. 

Heigham,  John,  '.'<-'■'•. 

Helena,  St.,  70  76,  124,  199. 

Henry  II,  143   144. 

Henry  [V,  22s. 

Henry  V.  266. 

lb  nry  \  I.  266,  262,  268. 

Henrj   \  lib  313,  314,  316. 

I [i  nrv  of  Huntington,  278. 

Henry  of  Baltn  j .  136,  1  16,  218. 

lb  n  lowe,  Philip,  308 

Herbert  of  Boaham,  '-'77. 

Hero-wot  hip,  1 1 


386 


INDEX 


Heuser,  W.,  276. 

Heylyn,  Peter,  324-325,  333. 

Hickes's  Thesaurus,  210  n. 

Higden,  190,  278,  280. 

Hilde,  St.,  57,  60,  105. 

Himmel  und  Hellc,  209. 

Hippolytus,  St..  38-39. 

Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  133. 

Historia  Aurca,  197. 

Historia  Trium  Rcgum,  282-283. 

Historical  accuracy  of  legends,  5-7, 

11-13,  18-22,  27-28. 
Historic  of  .  .  .  St.  George  of  Cap- 

padocia,  324-325. 
History  of  the  Holy  Rood-Tree,  123- 

124,  219. 
Holthausen,  F.,  71,  241,  283. 
Honorius,  Emperor,  56. 
Honorius,  Pope,  57. 
Horstmann,  C,  152,  161,  169,  173, 

180,  182,  210  n.,  220  n.,  273,  276, 

291,  322. 
Hubert,  St.,  36. 
Huchown,  239. 
Hugh  of  Eglinton,  239. 
Hugh,  St.,  of  Lincoln,  142-144. 
Hugh,    St.,    of   Lincoln:    Vita    by 

Giraldus,   142-144;  Magna  Vita 

by  Adam,  144,  145. 
Hugh,  writer  of  Vision  of  St.  Paul, 

222. 
Hull,  Francis,  329. 
Hulme,  W.  H.,  280,  281,  282. 
Hwaetbert,  100. 
Hypatia,  34. 

Iamblichus,  30. 

Iconography,  its  influence,  51-52. 
Ignatius,  The  Life  of  St.,  330. 
Inscriptions,  errors  from,  52. 
Instructions  for  Parish  Priests,  by 

John  Mirk,  184. 
International  character  of  legends, 

7-9,  146,  206-207. 
Irene,  St.,  36. 
Isidore  of  Seville,  156,  200. 
Ives,  St.,  Vita  by  Goseelin,  141. 


Jacob  and  Joseph,  223. 

Jacobus  de   Voragine,   39,   53-54, 

181,  186. 
Jacques  de  Vitry,  19,  290. 
James,  Proto-Gospel  of  St.,  302. 
James  II,  330. 
James,  St.,  the  Greater,  38. 
Jameson,  Anna  M.,  345. 
Jamnes  and  Mambres,  123. 
Jean  de  Vignay,  195,  241. 
Jerome,  St.,  125,  189,  192,  283. 
Jerome,  St.,  287-288. 
Jerusalem  chamber,  228. 
Jesuits,  328,  329. 
Jesus,  Childhood  of:  Southern,  215- 

216;  Northern,  216,  225,  226. 
Jesus  Christ,  Enfances,  215. 
Jew  who  abused  the  Host,  304. 
John,  King,  251,  273. 
John,  St.,  Almoner,  201. 
John,  St.,  Chrysostom,  201. 
John  of  Damascus,  47. 
John,  St.,  of  Gualberto,  36. 
John  of  Hildesheim,  282-2S3. 
John  of  Salisbury,  8,  142,  143. 
John  of  Trevisa,  280,  281,  282. 
John  of  Tynemouth,  197,  268,  322. 
John  the  Baptist,  91,  172. 
John     the     Baptist,    Birth    of,    in 

Blickling  Horn.,  113. 
John,  St.,  the  Evangelist,  in  So.  Eng. 

Leg.,  158;  in  No.  Eng.  Horn.  Coll., 

174;  Thornton  MS.,  236-237. 
Johnson,    Richard,    310,    318-319, 

330. 
Joseph     (O.    T.),    see    Jacob    and 

Joseph. 
Joseph   of   Arimathea,    52-53,    55, 

272,  281. 
Judith,  91. 
Julian,  St.,  38, 44. 

Julian,  St.,  in  Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  111. 
Juliana,  St.,  65-70,  208,  209,  309. 
Juliana:  by  Cynewulf,  65-70,  71, 

81,  86;  early  13th  cent.,  208-210. 
Julianas,  Acta  S.,  65. 
Julianc,  Vie  de  sainte,  68. 


INDEX 


387 


Julitta  and  Cyricus,  31. 

Justine,  St.,  201. 

Kalmdre  of  the   newe   Legende  of 

Englande,  197-198. 
Kathnrine  of  Aragon,  317. 
Keble,  John,  347. 

Im,  Life  of  St.,  in  So.  Eng.  Leg., 

156,  160,  161. 
Kentish    royal    saints,  legends   of, 

114. 
Keynes,  George,  324. 
Kinard,  J.  P.,  122. 
Kinsman,  W.  and  E.,  323. 
Kirkr.  John,  310. 
Kittredge,  G.  L.,  240. 
Knork,  O.,  220  n. 
Kolbing,  E.,  241. 
Krahl,  E.,  210. 
Krapp,  G.  P.,  78,  284. 
Kuhn,  E.,  47. 
Kunegunde,  St.,  38. 

Lamb,  Charles,  309. 

Lantfred,  19,  107-108. 

Eat  in    legends   in    England,   9-10, 

95-109,  139-145,  197-198. 
Eaud,  William.  324-325. 
Laurence,  St.,  by  .Elfrie,  119. 
Lawrence,  St.,  298,  303. 
Layton,  Dr.,  315. 
Lasarus,  St.,  39  40. 
L>  ni .  -  1 

d  of  (food  Women,  The,  239, 
240,  241. 

da  lures,  39,  53  64,  172.  181, 
182,  186,  190,  192,  194,  195,  L96, 
262,  272,  286,  287,  292. 

d i     A  ■■: "i,     I  rench    transla- 
tion, 196,  241,  . 
/."/'  nda    A  una,    English    tn 
tion    of:  190,  194    197,  229,  286 
290,  291. 

it.  187  189,  161    18S 
I'M    L98,  32]   324,  329,  383-840, 
US 
LSger,  8t„  I 


Leland,  John,  288. 

Leofric,  Vision  of,  O.  E.  prose,  126. 

Liberius,  St.,  38. 

Liber  Pontifimlis,  35,  104-1<>.".. 

Lift  and  lhath  of  Mary  Magdalene, 

325-327. 
Life     and     Repentaunce    of    Mary 

MagdoM  m  .  307  308. 
Life  of  Our  I.adi/:   with   So.   Eng. 

Leg.,  163;  by  Lydgate,  259-260, 

290. 
Lincoln,  21. 

Lippeloo'a  Vita  Sanctorum,  32.'?. 
Literary   conditions   in    Chaucer's 

time,  233  234. 
Lives  of  English  Saints,  by  Porter, 

329. 

of  Saints,  The,  by  Qmfreville, 

333-334. 
Lives  of  Saints,  The,  by  Petre,  334. 
of  the  English  Saints,  by  Ros- 

carrock,  323. 
Lives  of  the  English  Saints,    The, 

Newman's,  341-344. 

of  the  Saints,  The,  by  Butler, 

337-340,  344. 

of    tin     Saints,    by    Baring- 
Gould,  344-345. 
Lives  of  H  omen  Saints,  322-3:'.: 
Local  legends,  248-251,  272-279. 
Localization  of  cults,  39-41. 
Logic  in  legends,  23. 
Longinus,  303. 
Louis  IX,  159. 
Lower,  Sir  William,  311. 
Lucius,  !•:..  30,  42 
Lucius  of  Bi  itain,  35,  55. 
Luoy,  St.:  by  Bokenam,  191,  198. 

l.udu  it  ,  301 ,  30L'. 

i .  St.,  in  Scot.  Leg.  <  oil.,  180. 
Lydgate,  John,  iss,  189,  193, 
274,  277,  290,  299,  305. 
/  id  >  ■■  '  anon,  266. 

rack  n.  H.  \  ,  266. 

i     Robert  de  <  Iretham, 


388 


INDEX 


Maohor,  St.,  in  Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  180- 

181. 
Maelduib,  97. 
Maffaeus,  329. 

Malchus,  history  of,  124-125. 
Malory,  Sir  Thomas,  187,  196,  203. 
Mamas,  St.,  38. 
Man  of  Law's  Tale,  239. 
Mannyng,  Robert,  of  Brunne,  169, 

171,  200-201. 
Manuel  des  Pechiez,  171,  200. 
Manuscripts,     errors     from     mis- 
taken reading  of,  35. 
Mappula  Anglice,  190-191. 
March,  Lady,  262. 
Margaret,  Queen,  258. 
Margaret,  St.,  34,  45, 135, 208, 209, 

210,  211,  298. 
Margaret,  St.:  seven  Anglo-Norman 

poems,   135;  by  Bokenam,   190, 

191,   193-194;  early  13th  cent., 

208-210;  Meidan  Margerete,  210- 

212,  223;  ibid.  Auch.  MS.,  216; 

mid-1 4th  cent.,  231 ;  by  Lydgate, 

261-262. 
Margaret,    Passion    of  St.,    O.    E. 

prose,  125-126. 
Marguerite,  Vie  de  ste.,  by  Wace, 

136. 
Marie  de  France,  135,  218. 
Maries,    L'Histoire    des    trois,    by 

Wace,  136. 
Marina,  St.,  45. 
Marina,  St.,  in  Harl.  2253  and  No. 

Eng.  Horn.  Coll.,  221. 
Mark,  St.:  in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  43;  in 

Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  180. 
Marlowe,  253. 
Martha,  St.,  39-40. 
Martha,  St.,  in  Saot.  Leg.  Coll.,  180. 
Martiloge  in  Englysshe,  The,  291- 

292. 
Martin,  St.,  of  France,  35. 
Martin,  St.,  of  Tours,  35,  98,  303. 
Martin,  St.,  of  Tours:  by  yElfric, 

119,   120;  Life  of,  in   Bliokling: 

Horn.,  113. 


Martini,     Vita    S.,    by    Sulpicius 

Severus,  113,  120. 
Martyrologies,  13,  35,  95,  110-111, 

114,  115,  291-292,  321-322,  324. 

See  Calendars,  and  Menologies. 
Martyrologium,  by  Bede,  78,  102. 
Martyrology  (prose,  9th  cent.),  110- 

111,  115. 
Mary  legends,  32-33,  51,  53,  136, 

147,  148-150,  166,  172,  177, 185, 

315,  317-318. 
Mary  Magdalene,  St.,  39-40,  221, 

306. 
Mary  Magdalene,  St.:  with  So.  Eng, 

Leg.,  162,  220-221;  in  Soot.  Leg. 

Coll.,  180;  by  Bokenam,  189, 191, 

192;  Auch.   MS.,  216,  220-221; 

with  No.  Eng.  Horn.   Coll.,  221; 

15th  cent,  prose,  286;  Digby  MS., 

305,  306-307;   by   Wager,  307- 

308;     Saint     Marie     Magdalens 

Conversion,    320-321;    by    Lady 

E.  Falkland,  324;  by  T.  Robin- 
son, 325-326;  by  Crashaw,  327- 

328. 
Mary   of  the   Cross,    The  Life  of, 

337. 
Mary,  St.,  of  Egypt,  45. 
Mary,  St.,  of  Egypt:  O.  E.  prose, 

125;  in  Soot.  Leg.  Coll.,  180,  183; 

Life  and  Death  of  ...  s.  Marie  of 

Mgypt,  328-329. 
Mary,  St.,  of  Oignies,  290. 
Mary  Tudor,  317. 
Massinger,  Philip,  309. 
Matthew,  St.,  87-89. 
Matthew  Paris,  144,  148,  295. 
Maurice,  St.,  122. 
Maximin,  St.,  40. 
Mediaeval  Stage,  The,  305. 
Mediaevalism  of  legends,  10-11,  15, 

53,  147,  149,  202,  292. 
Meinulph,  St.,  36. 
Memoirs    of    Missionary    Priests, 

335-336. 
Memorial  of  Ancient  British  Piety, 

337. 


INDEX 


389 


Men.  .logics,   35,   77,   93,    114-115, 

266.     ><    I  alendars,  and   Mar- 

tyrologies. 
Menology  (10th  cent.),  93. 
Metcalf,  F.,  332. 
Metros  of  Anglo-Norman  legends, 

137. 
Meyer,  P.,  133,  215. 
Meyer,  \Y.,  56. 
Michael,  St.,  146,  156,  206. 
Michael,  St.,  O.  E.  prose,  125. 

04  /.  apparition  of  St.:  in  Iilick- 

ling  II, .»,.,  113;  by  TJfric,  119. 
Michael's  Mount,  St.,  41, 
Mildred,  St.,  1 1-1;  Vita  by  ( ioscelin, 

111. 
Miracle  plays,   225,   252,  294-295, 

300  303,  304,  307. 
Miracles,  12-13,  22-23. 
Miraculous  images,  etc.,  47—48. 
Miraculous  transportation  of  n  lies. 

Mirk,    John,     1S4-1S8,    192,    247, 

0,  290. 
M    ■  •<>  dm  Domees,   138-139,  167- 

L68. 
Modwi  una,  St.,  135. 
Mombritius,  210. 
Monasticon,  271. 
Morality  plays,  307. 
Mortt  Darthur,  L> .  L96. 
Mosaics,  legendary,  52. 
MS.  Arundel  168,  271. 
MS.  Auchinleck,  210-221. 
M8.  Blicl  lmg,  113. 
MS.  I  Jamb.  Univ.  I.il.r.  Dd.  I.  1, 

169. 
MS    I  Jorp.  Christi  Coll.,  Oxford, 

120,  318. 
MS.  <  '."on  Tit  it-  A.  XXVI,  221. 
M8.4  ottonVitell.A.  XV,  115,125. 
MS.  Digby  172.  . 
M8.  Dig  ■  -.   : 

ME  Book),  91. 

MS.  Harl.  l  »'».  281. 
MS.  Harl.  2253,  221. 
MS.  Harl.  2J77,  L53. 


MS.  Hail.  2391,  1*7. 

MS.  Junius  11,  '.il,  92. 

MS.  Laud  lt'v,  152,  222,  229. 

MS.  Laud  622,  232. 

MS.  Phillips  8122,  109. 

MS.    Royal    Coll.    of    Physicians, 

Edinburgh,  Ch.  5.21,  170. 
MS.  Stonyhursi  Coll.,  is.  XLIII, 

282. 
MS.  Thornton.  235  237. 
MS.  Trinity  Coll.,  Can, I..,  R.  3.25, 

1C0. 
MS.  Trinity  Coll.,  Camb.,  B.  14.39, 

210. 
MS.  Trinity  Coll.,  (ami..,  B.  1 

273. 
MS.  Trin.  Coll.,  Dublin,  319,  195. 

MS.    Yereelli    (Yeroclli    I'.ook),    70. 

MS.   Vernon,   172,   173,    194,   217, 

230. 
Munro,  J.  J.,  285. 
Mysticism,  53,  147. 
Myth  and  legend,  21-22. 

Napier,  A.  S.,  70,  113,  122,  124, 

126  „.,  199. 
Nap. .1.., n.  21 . 
Neckam,  Alexander,  186. 
Nelson,  21. 

Neo-Platonism,  29-30. 
Neot,  St.,  336. 
Neot,  Si.,  Lift  of,  127. 
Newman,  J.  H..  341-344. 
Nicholas,  St.,  303. 
Nicholas,  St.,  <>.  E.  prose,  126;  Vie 

,!■  .  1  y  Ware,   136. 

el  of:  01,  20(1.  I'M. 
302;  O.   I.     pro  8,    123;  early   Mil, 

.    225  226;    prose    transla- 
tion 

■  ,    St.:    I  >t'i    by   Ailrcd.    Ml, 
182;  in  Soot.  Leg   <   ■//.,  180  181, 

Norbert,  St.,  ! 

North  l  ■        h     Homily    Collection, 

164    176,  l-  l.  1-7.  213,  210.  221, 

221.  227. 


390 


INDEX 


Notre-Dame,  La  fete  de  la  concep- 
tion, by  Wace,  136,  200. 

Nova  Legenda  Anglice,  198,  268, 
291,  322. 

Oaths  of  Strasburg,  130. 

Odo,  St.,  Vita  by  Eadmer,  141. 

(Edipus,  44,  134,  217. 

"Old  Curiosity  Shop,"  40. 

Onesimus,  St.,  36. 

Oral  and  written  legends,  25-26. 

Origen,  55. 

Osith,  St.,  135. 

Oswald,  St.,  29. 

Oswald,   St.:   by  ^Elfric,    120;    by 

Eadmer,  141. 
Overend,  Miss  E.  M.,  195  n. 
Ovid,  189. 

Owayne  Myles,  231-232. 
Oxford  Movement,  341,  343,  346. 

Pagan  survivals  in  legend,  41-48. 

Palladium  of  Troy,  48. 

Pallas  Athena,  48. 

Papula,  St.,  45. 

Paradiso,  240. 

Paris,  William,  244-247. 

Partridge,  John,  308,  317. 

Passio  Sancti  Procopii,  31-32. 

Passion,  Northern,  175. 

Passion,  Southern,  163. 

Passions,  or  Lives  of  the  Saints, 
by  ^Elfric,  118-120,  124  n., 
125. 

Pastoral  Care,  by  Gregory,  92. 

Patrick,  St.,  38,  40,  43,  56. 

Patrick,  Life  of  St.  (by  J.  B.  Bury), 
2,  346. 

Patrick,  Purgatory  of  St.:  five  Anglo- 
Norman  poems,  135;  by  Henry 
of  Saltrey,  145;  in  So.  Eng.  Leg., 
158;  Auch.  MS.,  216,  217-218; 
Owayne  Myles,  231-232,  248; 
by  Staunton,  284,  330. 

Patrick,  St.,  for  Ireland,  310;  The 
Delightful  History  of,  330. 

Pattison,  M.,  342. 


Paul,  St.,  33,  172,  206,  222. 

Paul,  St.,  The  Conversion  of,  305. 

Paul,  St.,  Vision  of,  126;  Anglo- 
Norman  version,  137;  12th  cent., 
206;  latter  13th  cent,  (two  ver- 
sions), 222;  mid-14th  cent.,  229- 
230,  248;  by  Audelay,  255. 

Paul  and  Thecla,  33-34. 

Paula,  St.,  195. 

Paulinus,  St.,  57,  59. 

Pearl,  209,  237. 

Pelagia,  St.,  45,  46. 

Pelagius,  124. 

Perpetua,  St.,  6,  27. 

Perseus,  44. 

Peter,  St.,  33,  38,  43,  172. 

Peter,  St.,  of  Canterbury,  Vita  by 
Eadmer,  141. 

Peter  and  Paul:  in  Blickling  Horn., 
113;  with  Wulfstan's  horn.,  122. 

Peterson,  J.  M.,  286. 

Petre,  W.,  334. 

Petronilla,  St.,  266. 

Petrus  de  Natalibus,  292. 

Philip,  St.,  33. 

Philip  of  Clairvaux,  289. 

Phoenix,  125. 

Pilate,  48. 

Pistel  of  Swete  Susan,  The,  see  Su- 
sanna. 

Placidas,  see  Eustace. 

Plato,  189. 

Plays  antedating  cycles,  295-296. 

Poetical  Translations  of  some 
Psalms,  325-326. 

Polycarp,  St.,  27,  28. 

Polychronicon,  190,  278,  280. 

Polyeucte,  311. 

Polyeuctes,  or  the  Martyr,  311. 

Pope,  Alexander,  331-332. 

Popular  imagination  in  legends, 
18-22. 

Porter,  Jerome,  329. 

Prelude,  The,  84. 

Prioress's  Tale,  239. 

Processus  Prophctarum,  with  So. 
Eng.  Leg.,  163. 


INDEX 


391 


Prose    legends,    94-127,    1.37-139, 
Mo-14.3,  184-188,  195-198,  201 
202,  247-248,  280  292,  318-320, 

321-324, 324-325, 32s   340. 
Pseudo-Athanasius,  25,  270. 
I'-'udo-Dioiiysius,  30. 
i       do-Matthew:    200,    215,    302; 

O.  E.  prose,  123. 
Puns  on  saints'  names,  38-39. 
Puritan  Revolution,  328,  329,  331- 

332. 
Purple  Island,  The,  326. 
Purpose  of  legends,  1,  3-5,  13. 
Pynson,    Richard,    197,   278,    288, 

292. 

tin,  St.:  Passion  of,  115,  130; 
Vi*  at,  130. 
Quintiliaii,  11. 

Radegunde,  St.,  277-27s. 

Redman,  R.,  2G0,  292. 

R.  formation,    effect    of,   188,  207, 

248,  292-293,  295,  300-301,  313- 

315,  347. 
j     penal    distribution  of   legends, 
89-90,   '.i_',    ill,    112,    114, 
163,  164,  169,  173,  224,  229. 
Relations  of  English  and  Callican 

(  hurches,  116,  128-130. 
Resurrection,  303. 
Reysby,  Nicholas,  284. 
Ribadeneira,  323,  324,  334. 
Rich,  Robert,  144. 
Richard  Cceur-de-Lion,  21,  3G. 
Richard  II.  244,  246. 
Richard  of  '  ornwall,  273. 
Rimini,  (  ourn  il  of, 
Robert  de  Gretham,  138-139,  167- 

168. 
Rol  te,  201. 

I        m    of  ( lloua  iter,    168,    169 

161. 
E      ri  of  Knaresborough,  St.,  249 

261. 
Robert   of  Shrewsbury,  291,  329, 

332. 


Robert  of  Sicily,  253. 
Robinson,  Thomas,  325-327,  328. 
Roger  of  W  endover,  30. 
Etolle,  Richard,  L69. 

Rolls  Series,  340. 

Roman  Mortyrology,  324,  *f  7 

Romances,    relations  of,  with  leg- 
ends, 48-51,  133-134,   154,  167 
159,    203,    211,    217,    220,    223, 
235-236,  239,  251,  319. 

Romances,    legends    as    historical, 
30-34,  47. 

Romanticism,  influence  of,  346-347. 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  40. 

Root,  R.  K.,  242. 

Roscarrock,  Nicholas,  323. 

Ruinart,  28. 

Sacrament,  sec  Croitoit  Play. 

Sacred  and  Legendary  Art,  345. 

Saints  in  art,  3  15. 

Sainti  of  England,  The,  114—116. 

Sanctilogium  Anglia,  197. 

Santa  Croce  in  (icrusah •iiiinc.  22S. 

Savinian  and  Savina,  Sts.,  105. 

Savinianus,  St.,  36. 

Scandinavian    invasion,    effect    of, 

92,  106,  128. 
Schick,  J.,  257,  268,  259. 
Scholarship  and  legends,  345-346. 
Scillitan  martyrs,  27. 
Scottish  L((i<ml  Collection,  176-184, 

186,  247. 
B<  bastian,  St.,  303. 

d  A  un't  Tali ,  bi  e  ( '<  cilia,  St. 
Sinn   champion!   uf  Christendom, 

The,  810,  318  320,  ! 
.,  Deadly  Sins,  228  308. 
Seven  sleepers  of  I  phi  bus,  44. 

Slet  i"  rs    of    Ephe  w  .    by 

.1  Ifrie,   L19. 

Sexburga,  St.,  -~s- 
68. 
ley,  P.  B.,  847. 
Shepherd,  Augustin,  334  886. 
Shirley,  James,  810. 
Sigi  ric,  1  is. 


392 


INDEX 


Sigfrid,  100. 

Simeon  Metaphrastes,  241. 
Simon  de  Walsingham,  136. 
Sommer,  E.,  325,  326. 
South-English  Legendary,  43,  151- 
164,  165,  166,  172, 173,  174,  175, 
176,  177,  213,  215,  216,  217,  222, 
223-224. 
Speculum  Hisiorialc,  182. 
Spenser,  319,  326. 
Staundone,  R.,  169. 
Staunton,  William,  284. 
Stephen,  St.,  the  Proto-Martyr,  in 

No.  Eng.  Horn.  Coll.,  174. 
Stephen  of  Siena,  290. 
Stevenson,  W.  H.,  127. 
Strange,  Lord,  254. 
S(trange),  R.,  330. 
Stubbs,  W.,  109,  346. 
Sulpicius  Severus,  113,  120. 
Summa  de  Divinis  Officiis,  186. 
Sun's  rays  give  support,  38. 
Susanna,  238-239;  by  Garter,  308. 
Swithin,  St.,  19,  299. 
Swithin,   St.:    by   M\hic,    120;   by 

Goscelin,  141;  in  So.  Eng.  Leg., 

160. 
Swithini,    Translatio  St.  Miracula 

S.,  107-108. 

Tacitus,  12. 

Ten  Brink,  B.,  68. 

Tennyson,  Lord,  312. 

Teresa,  A  Hymn  .  .  .  to  Sainte,  by 

Crashaw,  328;  Life  of  St.  T.,  by 

Woodhead,  330,  337. 
Tertullian,  55. 
Thais,  St.,  45. 

Thais,  by  Robert  de  Gretham,  139. 
Theodora,  St.,  45,  195. 
Theodore,  St.,  52. 
Theodore,  St.,  of  Canterbury,  94. 
Theodoric,  38. 
Theophilus:   228;   by  ^lfrie,    119; 

in  So.  Eng.  Leg.,  252;  in  No.  Eng. 

Horn.  Coll.,  252;  15th  eent.,  252- 

253;  by  Forrest,  317-318. 


Theophilus  of  Constantinople,  283. 

Theseus,  44. 

Thomai  Becketi,  De  Imposturis, 
300. 

Thomas,  St.,  33,  119,  123,  213. 

Thomas,  St.:  Passion  of,  O.  E. 
verse,  lost,  119;  in  So.  Eng.  Leg., 
158. 

Thomas,  St.,  of  Canterbury,  5,  8, 
22,  29,  37,  142,  155,  185,  298, 
299,  315. 

Thomas,  St.,  of  Canterbury:  by 
Frere  Benet,  135;  by  Gamier, 
135-136;  Vita  by  John  of  Salis- 
bury, 142-143;  in  So.  Eng.  Leg., 
158,  161;  in  No.  Eng.  Horn.  Coll., 
174;  by  John  Mirk,  185;by  Wade, 
277;  Vita  by  Wm.  Fitzstephen, 
296;  Tennyson's  Bcckel,  312. 

Thomas  Cantilupe,  The  Life  and 
Gests  ofS.,  330. 

Thomas  de  Chantimpr6,  19,  289. 

Thopas,  Sir,  226. 

Thornton,  Robert,  235. 

Three  Kings  of  Cologne,  The,  282- 
283. 

Three  Magi,  41. 

Thurston,  H.,  145. 

Tom  Thumb,  History  of,  216. 

Towneley  Plays,  301,  302. 

Tractatus  de  Purgatorio,  218. 

Trajan,  230. 

Translation  into  vernacular,  106, 
109-110,  112-114,  123-126. 

Tribulus,  35. 

Trinitarian  Friars,  249-250. 

Tundale,  Vision  of,  248. 

Tungdali,  Visio,  see  Tundale. 

Tyrannic  Love,  or  the  Royal  Martyr, 
311. 

Udall,  Nicholas,  300,  308. 
Umfreville,  Charles,  333-334. 
Unhistorical  saints,  17,  18. 
Unity  of  legendary  type,  3-5. 
Ursula,    St.:    by    Bokenam,    191; 
Wynkyn  de  Worde's,  291. 


INDEX 


393 


Usener,  H.,  42,  45,  46. 
•  Uses  of  legends,  13-15. 

Varnhagen,  H.,  230. 

\       a  St  morum,  124. 

\  re,  1  liaabeth,  Countess  of  Ox- 
ford, 192. 

Veronica,  47,  48,  302. 

Veroniea,  O.  E.  prose,  123. 

Villepas,  Alfonso,  323. 

Vincent  of  Beauvais,  182. 

Yindicta  Salraturin,  123. 

Virgin  Martyr,  The,  309,  310. 

Virgin  Mary,  14,  32-33,  51,  53,  136, 
146-160,  163,  177.  184,  200,  208, 
213,  216,  228,  240,  241,  259,  260, 
290,  302,  303. 

Virgin  Mary:  Life  by  author  of 
Scot.  Leg.  Coll.,  177,  179;  Li),  of 
Our  Lady,  by  Lydgate,  259-260, 
290. 

Virgin,  Assumption  of:  in  Blickling 
Horn.,  113;  in  So.  Eng.Lcg.,  102; 
ibid,  in  C'urs.jr  Mtmdi,  200;  ibid. 
mid-13th  cent.,  212-21  1. 
Virions,  1.",.  119,  122,  120,  137,  139, 
145,  146,  206,  217   218,  222, 229- 
230,  248,  256,  283  284. 
Vita  Patrum:  139,  166,  181,  200- 
201,  221  ;  0.  E.  translation,  124- 
126;  Anglo-Norman  translation, 
137. 
Vivien  (Vidian),  50. 

B,    136,   200. 

Wade,  Laurentiufl,  277. 
Wager,  L  wis,  307  308. 

field  Play  .  301,  302. 
Warburton'fl  oook,  3  10. 

,,f  the   I!"  ■■-.  effed  of,  217. 

272. 

w  ,r-.'.  icl    Earl  of     ■  •   i"  auchamp. 
u  a  hington,  21. 
John,  31 
Wenefred,  Bt.,  I  - 1,  185. 


fired,  St.:  byAudelay,  266;  by 
Carton,  290;  trans,  of  Rol  erl 
of  Shrewsbury  by  Griffith,  and 
by  Falkner,  329;  reissues  of 
Falkner  by  Metcalf  and  Fleet- 
wood, 3 

Werburghe,  St.,  27.r.. 

Werbvrghe,  St.:  ^'itn  l>y  Goscelin, 
141;  by  Bradahaw,  277  279. 

Wharton,  Henry,  33] , 

Whitford,  Richard,  291-292. 

Widsith,  77. 

Wilbrord,  St.,  101;  lives  in  Latin 
by  Alcuin,  106-106. 

Wilfrid,  St.,  102,  103-104,  140. 

WUfridi,  Vita  S.,  by  JEdde,  103- 
104;  by  Eadmer,  ill. 

William  de  Wadington,  171,  200. 

William  Fitsstephen,  200. 

William  of  Malmesbury,  50,   no, 
141-142,  278. 

William  the  Conqueror,  21,  120. 

Wilson,  John,  321-322. 

Witham,  Robert,  333,  334. 

Wolsey,  Card.,  313. 

Wonders  of  God  in  the  Wilderness, 
337. 

Woodhead,  Abraham,  330,  337. 

Worde,  Wynkyn  de,  10s.  2M,  291- 
292. 

Wright,  W.  Aldis,  160. 

Wulker,  H.  1'.,  85. 

Wtitfhad,St.,andSt.Rvffin,273  275. 

Wulfstan,  121    122. 

Wiii: inn.  St.,  in  S<>.  Eng.  Leg.,  160. 

Wyclif,  268,  2S2. 

Wygnale,  John,  200. 

Wyntoun,  238 

Vaxley,  334 

York.   Alcuin'e   poem  on  saint-  •  •!. 
L06 

I 

Zupitsa,  J.,  286. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


189 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 

LIBRARY 


.. . ,  ^iS^ss^&SSSSi 


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158   00001    0198 


